Sonic Black Ops
by Chaos Critique
Summary: This is a new story in the form of short chapters, that puts Sonic the Hedgehog in Espionage/ Elite Soldier situations. In it you can expect the vicious, hard bitten life of a soldier and a personal struggle as the group of Mobians cope with life away from home and feelings they can't let get in the way of their jobs.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own none of these characters. The characters in this story are product and property of the Sonic Sega Team. The events in this story are mine however as well as any new information I may create on the Sonic Universe and any attempt to replicate it by a fellow writer or Sega will be met with severe persecution. With that heavy stuff out of the way I'd like to say "Hi!" and thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm Chaos Critique and I'm a huge sonic nut! I love that spiky, blue, little attention seeker! But recent sonic fan fiction (especially some of the High School stuff that's just painful to read) hasn't been scratching my itch. I can understand where things can be funny if you've got a high school totally composed of woodland creatures but some of it is just... well... boring. With creatures with the powers to deal with Global catastrophes why do we want to read about them failing in class? You can have all the humour and romance expected with tension and action thrown in! And from that thought, this story was born. **

Chapter 1: Conference

_G.U.N. Training facility, Mexico. Local time 6pm_

"Rouge! Get the hell back here!"  
Rouge giggled to herself as she looked over her shoulder and saw that Amy had caught up with her. They were pelting at full speed down the halls of the G.U.N. training facility.

"Rouge, this seriously isn't funny anymore! Give it back now!"  
Rouge didn't even say anything but only turned around long enough for Amy to see her stick her tongue out and wave at her with the pink covered book she was holding before flapping her bat wings and flying down the hallway too fast for Amy to catch. Totally enraged, Amy shot out her hand and summoned her Pico-Pico hammer from hammer space and hurled it as hard as she could. The throw was good and with the straightness of the hall the hammer spun ahead, ready to smash itself against the back of Rouges skull.

* * *

Sonic was sitting on the couch in his room, bored out of his mind. He was playing _Burnout Paradise _on his PSP and trying and failing to ignore the humid evening outside. He'd beaten the game a hundred times and knew every corner of every track. He was just beginning to think about how easily he could outpace all those sports cars on that island paradise when Knuckles came in looking… unsettlingly cheery. Sonic thought it looked quite creepy. Knuckles always looked angry or at least a little annoyed but now he had a huge smile plastered across his muzzle.

"What happened to you then? Did Julie-Su finally drop the whole virtuous girl act and let you in?" said Sonic hoping his below-the-belt insult would restore Knuckles to his non-frightening annoyed state. But surprisingly the guy kept on smiling like a moron.

"Tell me Sonic…" he began, "Do my dreadlocks look different today?"

"Um… I… no? Not…really."

"Well they feel different anyway. In fact, I think you should see how they feel for yourself."  
Sonic suddenly sat up with a start.

"I wasn't going to say anything but you've forced me to it. Dude, you are acting really weird and I'm starting to feel really uncomfortable, so could you drop the act?"  
Knuckles feigned a thoughtful expression and stroked his muzzle a couple of times to add to the look.

"Hmmmm…." he said. "Why don't you just feel my dreads and then I'll drop the act, okay?"  
Unsure of what he was really doing, Sonic reached forward and tentatively brushed Knuckles dreadlocks with the tips of his fingers. They were rock solid.

"Oh..."said Sonic. "Those are some pretty hard dreads you got there."

"Funny thing is they've never been like this before. It just happened this morning after I'd used my hair gel which had an empty glue container next to it that I'd never seen before."  
Sonic was sweating really badly now and was looking at the door with a very obvious yearning.

"Sonic, if you tell me the truth, I promise I won't get angry. Okay? Now, did you mix in that glue with my hair gel?"

"Yeeeeeeaaaaaa….kind of…"  
And Knuckles chuckled. It was so unexpected that Sonic began to join in out of pure relief. Soon their shoulders began to shake and they were heaving huge chesty laughs until they were clutching their sides. It took a good 5 minutes before the two ended their laughing fit and sorted themselves out.

"Ha ha ha ha, he he, whoooa boy" sighed Knuckles. He turned for a second before launching at Sonic, fur bristling, arms outstretched and temper exploding.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU BLUE PIECE OF SHIT!"  
Sonic was down the hall like a shot, Knuckles in hot pursuit, rage stirring him on.

"Jesus Christ Knuckles don't kill me!"

"Stop running! You're only making it worse for yourself!"  
Sonic, knowing that there was nothing out there worse than getting his brain kicked out by Knuckles, kept sprinting before pulling around a sharp right corner.

Neither Rouge nor Sonic saw each other coming around that corner and so barrelled into each other at full speed. Recovering quickly from the impact Rouge turned annoyed and flustered towards Sonic and yelled;

"Hey Blue! Watch where you're go-"  
She cut off mid-sentence with a gasp before ducking and covering her head. Not really thinking, Sonic looked over his shoulder to see what she was ducking from. With an audible _thud _Amy's hammer slammed into Sonics face, bowling him over and leaving him lying face down on the floor totally disorientated. Knuckles had just arrived, so he and Rouge just stared. Amy skidded in a second later, apologies already flying out of her mouth.

"Oh my God! Sonic, are you okay? I'm really sorry. I didn't mean it! Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! Oh god, please don't hate me! If I can do anything to ma… oh…"  
The voice died in her throat then and there as she rolled him onto his back. Sonic started to come to, mumbling a little as he sat up.

"Oh man… ugh... huh? Knuckles, Rouge, Amy what happened? Why can't I open my eye?"  
They just continued to stare at him with a mixture of amusement (Knuckles), mild discomfort (Amy) and pure fascination (Rouge).

"Can someone give me a mirror?"  
With reluctance, Amy reached into a pocket of her skirt and pulled out a small make-up mirror and handed it to Sonic. When he looked in it he saw that the entire left side of his face was totally covered in one huge, angry looking bruise. They all stood awkwardly in silence for a minute while Sonic probed his face with his fingertips until the silence was pierced by Knuckles laughing his ass off. The echidna was rolling around on the ground, clutching his sides, barely able to breathe from the sheer force of his laugh. Rouge nudged him with her foot.

"Leave him alone! Don't you think it's bad enough that he's already got a black eye fro…pfff"  
Rouges face began to give way. Sonic, seeing she was holding it in, just nodded and she cracked up laughing.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, HA! I'm... I'm really sorry but it looks so funny! I can't believe your little girlfriend pegged you so hard you got a black eye!"  
The two continued to laugh it up while Amy helped Sonic up.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Sonic yelled.

"Sonic are you sure you're okay?" Amy said with a slightly hurt look on her face.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine seriously."

"It's just that it looks really painful."  
With that she prodded his black eye gently with her fingers before drawing them away with a shriek.

"Ew, its throbbing! Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!"

"Hey Amy, I need to go to the bathroom for a sec. I'll be right back."  
Sonic quickly tottered round the corner before Amy, Knuckles and Rouge heard the poorly muffled noise of his cries. He then sauntered back around the corner with a relived expression on his face.

"Well," he said. "I needed that."  
Suddenly Tails came skidding into the hallway.

"S'up Tails?" asked Knuckles.

"I thought I heard the muffled screaming of a little girl, so I came here as fast as I could." replied the kitsune. Knuckles cracked a grin at the comment and Sonic's quills bristled a little at _little girl_.

"It's just as well I found you. General Dante is calling an immediate conference in the barracks and everyone has to be there."  
They all began to move towards the barracks but Amy caught Rouge's elbow and held her back until the boys playful jibes faded into silence.

"Give it back Rouge. This stopped being funny a long time ago."

"But Amy, whatever do you mean?" simpered Rouge with mock innocence evident on her face and in her voice.

"My Diary!" yelled Amy. "Give it back or I swear I will hurt you in more ways than you can imagine!"  
Just to emphasis her point Amy clicked her fingers and another hammer appeared in her fist.

"Alright Pinky, calm down." said Rouge. He held out the pink covered book and Amy snatched it as soon as it was in reach.

"Having it back won't help you though." purred Rouge. Amy's eyes widened.

"How much did you read?"

"Enough to know about all your various fantasies involving Sonic anyway."

"Even the one with…"  
Rouge nodded.

"Where I was…"  
Rouge nodded.

"And where he was…"  
Rouge nodded. Amy dropped to her knees and face palmed herself.

"I'm so dead. I may as well kill myself now because Sonic is gonna think I'm a freak when he hears about this."

"Not to burst your bubble Pinky, but he already thinks you're a little freaky. I never said I was gonna tell though. I'm sure we could come to an agreement….. for the right price."

"How much?"

"Thirty dollars and those cute, six-inch red heels you've got."

"Awww, I love those heels and I don't have that much money!"

"Fine. Twenty dollars, the heels and I need some pink lipstick. I'm all out."

"Alright." said Amy with a huge amount of reluctance.

"We should get going." said Rouge. "I want to see the look on Shadow's face when Knuckles tells him about Sonic's black eye."

**Well? What did you think of it as an opening chapter?Not much action as I need to characterize everyone first. I hope I can update this soon. Comments and advice is always welcome. **

**Keepin' it real,  
Chaos Critique**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi all! Chaos Critique here! I'm so happy to be back as soon as I am and I got tonnes of positive feedback about my first chapter. I honestly thought my stuff would be lost among all the other stories on fan and would be totally ignored. I'm overjoyed with the support I've gotten so far and really hope I can keep up to your expectations. Thanks for reading, as every view counts.  
'Til next time,  
Chaos Critique**

Chapter 2: The News

_G.U.N. Trainig facility, Mexico. Local time 9.15pm_

Amy and Rouge entered the Barracks to find almost everyone was already present for the meeting. Sonic was sitting on his bunk, looking embarrassed and trying not to catch anyone's eye and doing a pretty poor job of it as everyone kept stealing glances at his big, angry black eye. Knuckles was sitting next to Julie-Su and across from Shadow and Tails, presumably telling them about how Sonic got his bruise by the way he was waving his arms around dramatically, clutching his eye and mock crying. Tails was smirking just a little, but Shadow was just leaning against his bunk in his trade mark pose: arms folded, frowning with a slightly bored air. Silver and Blaze were pouring over a set of blueprints that were spread across their bedside locker, while Espio, Charmy and Vector were sitting in the corner playing some kind of card game. As Amy went to open her locker, Cream sudden burst into the room waving her arms and yelling.

"Everyone get in positions! Commander Dante is coming!"  
They all suddenly became animated and rushed to the end of their bunks and stood ready for the Commanders arrival. Instead, a tall, grey haired man in his early sixties came marching into the room. He began to pace around slowly, judging each one of them like a piece of meat. Shadow was the first to break the silence.

"Who're you?" he said.

"I'm _General _Columbus and you'll learn to watch your tone with me, boy… if you can even be called that." Shadows eyes flashed and upper lip curled slightly in irritation to momentarily reveal a single fang. Sonic quickly picked up where Shadow left off.

"Why are you here? Nobody transfers here without all of us knowing at least three months in advance. Where's Commander Dante?" There was a murmur of agreement from all present.

"Commander Dante is dead. That's why I'm here."  
There was a collective gasp from everyone in the room. They all bowed their heads in silence, only punctuated by Creams soft sobbing. Amy went over to comfort the rabbit. Commander Dante had been the first to see what kind of good they could do. He'd kept them safe from the scientists that had wanted to cut them open and see how they ticked. He'd been like a father to them in this strange, hostile world known as earth…..and now he was gone. After Sonic had made sure he could speak without his voice cracking, he finally asked what they'd all been thinking:

"How did it happen?"

"He was flying a squadron of jets over the mid-Atlantic on a routine patrol when fire came out of nowhere. The entire squadron was destroyed. The explosion killed him instantly. He didn't suffer."

"How long ago did this happen?"

"Approximately three days ago."

"You waited three days to tell us our company Commander had died? What kind of facility do you run here?" Knuckles yelled suddenly. General Columbus suddenly turned on him, eyes sharp, words cut, cold and precise. The echidna didn't back down.

"We had to salvage the wreck and try and recover his body. Tell me, do you like the idea of your company Commander rotting at the bottom of the sea, being eaten by whatever is down there? Could you live with yourself, knowing he was down there and you just couldn't bother getting him?"  
The horrific image had sent Cream off on a fresh batch of sobs. Amy redoubled her efforts in keeping her calm, occasionally looking disapprovingly at the General. Knuckles bowed his head, shame beginning to set in.

"Don't worry Cream." whispered Amy softly. "He's not still down there, okay? They're just cleaning him up before he can be laid out. We can visit him and say goodbye properly then." The little rabbit looked up at her, eyes wide and blurred with tears.

"Y-You think h-he'd like some f-flowers from my g-garden to go with him?"

"I'd say he'd like that very much."  
Cream sniffed a little and reached to Amy for a hug. Amy embraced her and the crying stopped immediately. The General mumbled something upon seeing Creams show of affection, when Amy suddenly turned on him.

"Hey pal! If you've got something to say, say it or shut up!"

"I was saying that this one…" he pointed at Cream accusingly. "…is not fit to be a soldier. Any person who is part of the organization of G.U.N. must be ready and willing to kill. We can't have a normal soldier hesitate in a kill or be killed situation and yet she…" again he motioned to Cream "…breaks down at the mention of a dead man! And you're supposed to be a Blacks Ops Team? HA! You're nothing more than a mutant freak show!"

Amy stood mouth open, stunned into silence at the magnitude of the disgust the General had displayed. Knuckles was about to explode out when Shadow suddenly skidded in front of him and placed a restraining hand on his chest. Knuckles went to push past him, but Shadow gave him a look and so Knuckles stopped moving. Shadow motioned to Silver and the Hedgehog raised a hand. The General slammed against the wall, pinned and surrounded by a pulsing blue aura. The man began to struggle, but the aura held him fast.

"Wha- What is this?"

"Physcokenisis, General. Just one of the many abilities we possess. Blaze if you will?" asked Silver.  
Blaze said nothing, only clicked her fingers summoning a small flame that grew in size and intensity until it had swallowed up her entire arm. Then just like that, it was gone. The old man was panicking now. He had a thick, shine of sweat all across his face and only intensified as each mobian converged on him.

"You want to know something Columbus?" began Sonic. "We have three beliefs here. Three things we all hold true and right and that we never question. First: All mobians are together. We only have each other to rely on. So when you mess with the weakest of us, you mess with the strongest too. Cream is ten for god sake! No ten-year-old is supposed to be a soldier. Have you ever lost someone close to you? Today, she did and yet you expect her to be cold and emotionless like Commander Dante was just anyone.  
Second: Mobius is all that matters. As long as our world is safe, yours can rot for all we care.  
Third: Home is the only objective. We only work for G.U.N. until we find a means to get home. As soon as we do, we're gone.  
But, we had a fourth belief once. That humans can't be trusted. Only one man was ever proof to the contrary and his name was Commander Dante Morain. But he's dead. He was like a father to us. If it wasn't for him, people like you would have had us cut open on a slab months ago."

Sonic couldn't help himself any longer. The feelings were too strong, too obvious to ignore. Crying was weakness and he couldn't show the General any of that. So he did the only thing he could. He turned his sorrows to rage and let it fuel every word he said and every move he made.

"He was the only person on this entire planet with a shred of decency and compassion; yet you treat him like he was just any man! He was nothing but a pawn to you! He's the reason men like you have power. While he does nothing but give, all you do is take! And today, you took one thing too many..."

Sonic spoke the next words with such coldness, distance and malice all his team members gave an involuntary shiver at the radical shift from his sunny, jokey, cheery self.

"...you took him away from us. So now, I'm gonna take something away from you."

Sonic reached into his kaki pants and produced a small switch blade from the pocket. He lifted it slowly, each movement bringing it closer to the Generals throat; each struggle of the General making a predatorial grin spread slowly across his lips. Each mobian watched with baited breathe, hoping Sonic would drop the act and let go. But he didn't. Just as it seemed Sonic was about to draw the blade across the Generals adams apple, Amy finally spoke up:

"Sonic, stop!"  
Suddenly the red mist cleared in his mind and Sonic saw what he'd been about to do. His arm recoiled in shock and the knife clattered to the floor. Sonic turned, words still cold but not still carrying their previous anger.

"Leave now and never come back. We're far more powerful than you can imagine and we know every secret in this organisation. Come back and you know what to expect. I just gave you a taste of it."  
He motioned to Silver and the hedgehog cut off the aura that kept the General fixed to the wall. The old man crashed to the floor where he lay was a short period of silence that followed until it was broken once again by Sonic.

"And unless you can give me one good reason why you're still on our floor in the next ten seconds, I'm going to recycle you as Espio's new practice dummy."  
To emphasise the point Espio flicked a throwing star at the wall. It embedded itself mere inches from the Generals head.

"The missiles…. that hit those jets were ballistic missiles." managed to General. "Those jets were targeted."

Sonics ear flickered at the mention of a potential culprit. He pressed further.

"Who?"

"We originally thought it was the Russians, but on closer inspection, we found an insignia among the wreckage. An insignia much like that described by your team. The insignia of an enemy from your home world."

"Robotnik…" Sonic breathed. "But why would he attack US military jets and frame the Russians?"

"We believe it's been orchestrated to raise political tension at a United Nations meeting this week in New York. The place will be a powder keg and it only takes a spark to ignite it."

"But what would Robotnik get from sending countries to war? Surely, he would get as caught up in the fighting and suffer as much as anyone." observed Blaze.

"If our countries go to war, our nuclear fleet will be launched immediately. The Russians will retaliate. We believe that's exactly what he wants."

"You still haven't told us why though." said Sonic.

"There is a nexus point, through which both our nuclear arsenals must pass in order to reach their required destinations. If the missiles were intercepted at this point, the entire fleet could be captured and we would be powerless to stop whoever wielded them. This is where you come in. The ballistic missiles that destroyed Commander Dante's squadron were land based, but there was no land is sight for miles. We need you and your team to investigate the crash zone and see if you can find out what Robotnik is up to. And if you see him take him out. This is your mission if you choose to accept it."

But when he looked up, Sonic and the rest of the Black Ops Division Thirteen were already kitted out for combat. Even little Cream had a determined look on her face and a fire burning in her eyes.

"General…." said Sonic. "… you didn't even need to ask."

* * *

_Mid-Atlantic ocean Lat. 12,5 Long. 20,0 Local time 3.45am_

There continuous hum of the aircraft kept the team awake into the dead hours of the night, but most were too on edge to grab even a measly two hours of sleep. Some were tending to their gear for the upcoming mission. Shadow was relentlessly cleaning his rifle like his life depended on it, while Espio was using a small grind stone to sharpen the edge and tips of his shuriken to needle point. Silver and Blaze were preforming a number of mental calming exercises near the planes hatch in between bouts of meditation. Sonic had just been staring blankly at the ground for the entire three hour flight. He could have run across the water to the crash site in half the time, but he didn't want his team to think that he'd left them. Especially after how he'd acted out in the barracks earlier that day. He'd totally lost it. He was supposed to be the pillar that everyone could rely on and in a moment of rage and weakness, he'd lost it. He could already feel his team mates looking at him differently. His train of thought was suddenly broken by a new presence beside him. When he looked up he saw Amy sitting next to him.

"Hey.." he said.

"Hey…" she replied. "How's the eye?"

"Not bad. The swelling's gone down a lot so I can open it now. The bruising will take a couple of days to fade though."

"Did I already say I'm sorry about that?"

"Only like, a million times."  
Amy giggled a little and to his surprise Sonic found himself smiling as well, but soon they both found themselves sitting in awkward silence until Amy finally broke the silence, approaching the one subject Sonic didn't want to talk about.

"What happened to you back there?" Amy asked. "That wasn't you back in the barracks holding that blade."  
Sonic didn't reply for some time. He rubbed a spot in between his eyes for a while and then sat back in his seat. Finally he said:

"I dunno... It's just... Ugh... I can't shake this niggling feeling at the back of my mind. It's like there's something else in my head that comes out when I lose control. I know that that's a pretty poor excuse but its the best I've got."

"You're just stressed out Sonic. And still trying to come to grips with Commander Dante's death. We all have our own ways of dealing with grief; maybe this is just your way."  
Thankfully Sonic felt a small tap on his shoulder that gave him an excuse to shift the topic focus.

"Ummm…. Mr Sonic…" mumbled Cream bashfully.

"Yeah, Cream? What is it?"

"I wanted to say sorry for getting us in trouble with the General today. I…" her voice disappeared then and her eyes glazed over with a film of fresh tears. Eventually she managed to choke out:

"I didn't mean to make anyone angry; I just thought it was so sad that Commander Dante would be all alone down under the sea. It made me really sad. Please don't be mad."  
Sonic knelt down on the aircraft floor and lifted Creams chin up with his index finger.

"Hey, Cream, look at me. Do I look mad?"  
Cream shook her head.

"That's because I'm not. You didn't need to apologize. I know how you feel."

"You do?"

"Of course. Commander Dante was my friend too. I miss him as much as you do, but he's gone to better place now."

"Where did he go Mr Sonic?" asked Cream. "Ms Amy said he was in a place called the morgue back at base. Did they move him?"

"No Cream. The place he went to isn't on earth, in Mobius or even in the soul dimension. He went to a place in here…." He gently tapped the spot where Cream's heart was. "..and in here." He again tapped a spot on Cream's forehead. She looked confused, so he explained.

"When someone dies Cream, they live on in the hearts and minds of all the people they leave behind. That way they never truly leave us. We might not be able to talk to them like we used to but if you listen really hard; you might hear him whispering to you. He'll be there looking after you in rough times and keeping you safe. That way you don't have to feel so sad. Okay?"  
Her face brightened instantly.

"Okay Mr Sonic. I feel a lot better now. I'm going to see if Commander Dante feels like talking."  
So she skipped off, already beginning her conversation with Commander Dante. Sonic hadn't sat back down more than a minute before Amy began speaking.

"That was really sweet, what you did for Cream. Do you honestly believe that though or was all that for her sake?"  
Sonic was quiet a moment, a thoughtful expression written into his features. He drew a deep breath before replying.

"I have to in a way. I wouldn't lie to someone unless I thought the truth would devastate them. Cream would have managed if I'd told her that Dante was gone and never coming back, but I believe in a more optimistic approach."

"I suppose it's not really something you're supposed to think too hard about." sighed Amy.

"What aren't you supposed to think about?" asked Sonic.

"Life." Amy simply said. "If we all thought about it your way, we'd go along a lot happier, but in the end we'd finally come back to the fact that one day we're all just going to be a slab of dead meat on a morgue table. If we thought about it too much we'd just drive ourselves insane."

"Yeah…" said Sonic. "We would."  
Suddenly there was a huge _boom_ on the left side of the aircraft and the whole plane rocked violently. Almost everyone was thrown to the floor, the only exception being Espio who had managed to get a handhold on a pipe before he fell. Sonic quickly scrambled to his feet and, seeing Amy on the ground pulled her up too. Their eyes met for a moment and the words came before he could stop them.

"Remember that dead slab of meat conversation we had earlier?"

"Uh-huh." she replied.

"Do me a favour and pray that that's not today."  
Before she could reply, he zipped to the cockpit entrance and yelled to his team.

"Everybody buckle up! This is gonna be a bumpy ride!"  
He entered the cockpit before adding:

"It looks like the welcoming party has already arrived!"

**Thanks again for reading guys and gals. I really appreciate the support and don't be afraid to comment and critique, because that's exactly what I want! Hope you liked it and….**

'**Til next time,  
Chaos Critique**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi all, Chaos Critique here! Sorry about not posting for so long but my computer malfunctioned and I lost the chapter, so I had to start over. Apologies for the wait but I had to re-read this like 15 times (as well as completely restarting it) as this chapter is really important and I wanted to get it perfect. This was actually supposed to be one long chapter, but I split it between this chapter and the next one. As always, thanks for reading, I really appreciate the support and don't be shy if you have something to say (good or bad).**

'**Til next time,**

**Chaos Critique**

Chapter 3: Recon

_Mid-Atlantic ocean Lat. 12,5 Long. 20,0 Local time 3.47am_

Though barely in the cockpit more than two seconds, Sonic could see that the pilots were already dead. The first one was slumped over the control panel, nose and ears streaming blood while the other was pumping the stuff out of a gaping wound in his neck. The plane began to dip, so Sonic shoved one of the corpses out of its seat and pulled up as hard as he could on the controls. The plane continued to dip despite his struggle so he called for a more experienced pilot.

"Tails! Get in here, quick!"

Tails immediately darted in, grabbed the other set of controls and through their combined effort, they managed to level out the plane.

"Tails, I've got to get everyone out of here. How long can you keep us in the air?"

"The panel says the damage is pretty extensive, so I can buy you three minutes at best, provided we don't take another direct hit."

"That's all I need."  
Sonic blurred back into the holding deck and though it seemed like a bad time decided to lighten the mood.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he began in a mock air hostess voice. "we appear to be experiencing some mi-"  
He was cut off there by the sound of an explosion just outside the ship's hull.

"-some _mild_ turbulence. Captain Prower asks that you all find a fellow passenger who can fly and stay with them at all times as we are about to jump out of the plane. Parachutes are available for all those who cannot fly and you are free to take one if necessary. We thank you for flying with G.U.N. airlines and hope you had an enjoyable flight."  
Though nobody laughed, Sonic still thought it was a decent joke and the hilarity of it all would come through later when the Team wasn't in danger of dying. By the end of the speech, the team was ready to disembark. Sonic slammed the hatch release button to let everyone out, but the hatch remained firmly shut. He hopped down and attempted to prise it open by hand, but it still refused to budge.

"The damn hatch is stuck!" he yelled. "I'm gonna need a crowbar or something to get it open! It might take a couple of min-"  
Sonic was suddenly interrupted by a yell and looked up in time to see Knuckles jumping down at him, fist raised to strike. He rolled away just before Knuckles fist ripped clean through the hatch door. Then with a grunt and a shriek of rending metal, Knuckles literally peeled the hatch in half until there was a gap big enough for the pairs to fall through. Sonic looked to Knuckles for an explanation for the outburst but all he said was:

"I'm uncomfortable with heights."

"And yet, back home, you live on a floating Island hundreds of feet in the air?"

"I didn't see you offering to share your apartment in Station Square."  
The conversation was ended by a quick shout from Tails.

"Hello! Plane falling out of the sky here! Get moving already!"  
At that, the pairs started dropping out of the bomb hole Knuckles had made. First Amy and Cream, then Shadow and Rouge, Charmy and Vector, Espio and Silver, Knuckles and Julie-Su and finally Blaze dropped out on her own until Sonic and Tails were the only two left on the plane.

"Tails we have to leave now!" yelled Sonic as he strapped on his parachute. "If we stay much longer we'll be below jump height."  
Just as Sonic was about to enter the cockpit another huge explosion went off on the planes nose and he felt the aircraft rock with the force of the blast.

"Help!"

He heard the distressed cry from the pilot's seat and forced the door to the cockpit open. The place was jammed with debris, a large amount of which had fallen on Tails and pinned him into the chair.

"Tails, don't panic! I'm gonna get you out of here okay? Just hold on!"  
Sonic began scraping furiously at the debris, but many chunks were too large to shift. Still, he pulled away as much as he could, but Tails was still trapped.

"Sonic…" said Tails. "…go now. I can keep this thing in the air long enough for you to jump, but you have to go now! Leave me here!"

"No Tails. Were both getting out of here in one piece. Ugh… I just wish these stupid debris weren't so damn heavy!"  
That's when the penny dropped in Sonic's head.

"In the air…. heavy… That's it! Tails, I've got a plan, but you have to trust me."

"Whatever it is Sonic, I'll do it."

"You have to let the plane drop. Just let go."  
The kitsune's eyes widened in shock.

"You're nuts! If I do that we'll both die! How is that a plan?"

"Tails, you said it yourself, we're running out of time. You have to do this or you won't have a chance at all! It's now or never!"  
And so, fighting his best judgement, Tails released the controls and the plane began to plummet towards the ocean.

* * *

"Hey, where's Sonic and Tails?" asked Knuckles.

"Look!" yelled Rouge, pointing above them.  
They all turned and watched in stunned horror as the plane turned into a downward spiral, plummeting towards the sea, before smashing into the blue, rolling mass and exploded with almighty _BOOM_ and a torrent of fire. They all waited in silence to see their friends emerge from the blast, unscathed, but Shadow was the one to finally say it and make it real.

"They're dead. There's no way they would have survived that crash, never mind the explosion."  
The team mourned silently only broken by Amy's suppressed sobs. It was time for Cream to comfort her now. Shadow remained silent and impassive as ever before he felt a tug on his shoe. He ignored it but snapped to attention when he heard a familiar voice.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, faker."  
Shadow looked down to see a slightly blackened Sonic hanging from his leg, still grinning his irritatingly happy grin.

"Sonic!" the whole team cried and rushed over to pull him up.

"What am I, then? Chopped liver?"  
The team spun around again to find Tails hovering in the air behind them, slightly blackened too but otherwise okay.

"Tails!" shrieked Cream and tackled him with a flying hug so hard; they almost fell out of the sky. After everyone was over the initial shock, they were abuzz with questions.

"What happened in there?" asked Knuckles. "We all thought you were dead."

"I got pinned down by some debris inside the cockpit, but Sonic pulled a master stroke and managed to get us out." replied Tails.

"Well? How'd you do it?"

"I'll let Sonic answer that."

"Well, the stuff weighed too much to move…" began Sonic. "…so I just thought of that word: Weight. Then it hit me. In free-fall, everything is weightless; so if we let the plane drop, the debris would be light enough to move. Then it was just a matter of dropping out of the hatch."  
The team's spirits were lifted by their close call and so they flew on in good humour, but they soon realized that they had no transport and there was no land around for miles. They drifted on in silence until the sun began to peak above the horizon. That's when Knuckles reacted.

"Wait!" he said. "I can feel something."

They circled in the air while he tried to locate whatever it was that was touching his mind. Knuckles had the natural ability to pick up and locate energy signatures in the air, born from years of sensing the Master Emeralds presence. He almost had it down to an exact science, but after a while he just shook his head.

"It's too faint. But it's definitely there; and I think it's coming from that direction."  
He indicated towards the still rising sun and the whole group turned to look. It was Blaze and Tails that picked it up first.

"There's something wrong with the light." said Tails.

"Agreed." replied Blaze. "Look at that beam there. It looks somewhat distorted and odd."  
Sure enough at the end of one of the red rays of the sun, there was a slight oddity. A mild bulge and curl. Barely even the suggestion of a shape, but there was something there.

"I'm going to check it out." said Tails.

"No. I almost lost you already today Tails. Not again." snapped Sonic.

"Sonic, someone is going to have to check it out; it may as well be me. My tech will protect me from anything harmful. Besides, if you plan to stop me there's one big flaw in your plan."

"And what's that?"

"You can't fly."  
With that Tails motored away toward the anomaly as fast as he could, leaving Sonic desperately trying to manoeuvre his parachute to intercept him. But Tails was quickly lost from sight and so Sonic gave up his struggles. The minutes crawled at a snail's pace waiting for his return, when suddenly his disembodied head appeared no more than ten feet away. Everyone yelped except Shadow, who continued with his usual air of acceptance and boredom. Then the Tails head began talking.

"Guys, get over here quick! It's amazing in here! You won't believe your eyes!"  
The team drifted towards the Tails head and kept on going. As they passed it, they felt a zap of electricity and saw the sight Tails had been speaking of.

"Oh… my…" began Amy.

"God…" finished everyone.  
Below them, huge island was spread as far as the eye could see. It was blanketed in thick rainforests, only occasionally interrupted by lakes and winding rivers. But in its centre, there was a gigantic ring of scorched earth. It was a dead, barren and rocky outcrop; and like a crowning feature stood a hideous black tower that shot up into the sky like the devil had sent it up from hell to poison the land it stood upon. Upon its side a dark red insignia was emblazoned, recognizable by all to mean only one thing. Robotnik was here.

"Guys, we need to land!" yelled Sonic. "Tails, where would be the best spot to drop?"  
The Kitsune scanned the island momentarily before pointing to a lake with a small clearing in the rainforests below. The group descended quickly to make sure they weren't spotted. All the flyers touched down softly on the ground or in the surrounding trees, while all the mobians using parachutes hit hard and had to roll to lose momentum. Sonic sat up and began to massage his knees from the impact while Tails was already busy sorting things out.

"Before we do anything else, we have to figure out our bearings and send a message back to G.U.N. to confirm we're alive. I'll set up the communicator while you guys try to wor-"  
Tails stopped mid-sentence and his right ear flickered slightly. He held up a hand to indicate to everyone to stop moving and whispered to Rouge.

"Rouge, you've got better hearing than me; I heard something coming from the forest. See if you can pick it up." Everyone was silent and waited expectantly while Rouge's ears twitched and vibrated as she picked apart the sounds of the forest.

"There's something there alright." she said. "It's definitely mechanical; it's too clunky to be an animal or human. And there's a lot of them. Maybe as many as twenty…. Wait! There doing something… I can't tell what it is yet, but I think-"  
Rouge was suddenly cut off by the peal of a gun in the distance that made them all jump. Rouge dropped and clutched her ears in pain as her hyper-sensitive hearing rang with the gunshot.

"Rouge!" yelped Shadow. He ran over and skidded under her to break her fall before rolling her onto her back. She seemed to be trying to say something, but no sound came out. Shadow moved his ear close to her lips but could only make out two words.

"…patrol… hide…"

"There's a patrol coming! Everybody hide! Blaze! Burn the parachutes and scatter the ashes! We can't leave any evidence that we were here!" barked Shadow.  
Almost immediately the mobians began to disappear. Most of the flyers simply took off into the trees, while everyone else came up with various ways to conceal themselves. Vector had submerged himself in the lake, Blaze and Silver had found a large hollow underneath a giant boulder Silver had levitated while Knuckles had dug a tunnel going underground and Julie-Su had followed him, scraping the dirt down after her. Shadow had to look after Rouge as she was still too off-balance to take care of herself. Unable to find a place to hide, he simply said "Chaos Control!" and so he and Rouge disappeared in a brief flash of white light. In less than ten seconds, all the team were totally concealed and the parachutes were ash. No sooner than Shadow and Rouge had vanished, a platoon of heavily armoured eggbots came rolling through the clearing. They paused for moment while their leader panned a full 360o and scanned the environment and confirmed out loud:

"Bio scan: Negative. No sign of living creatures present. Unexpected heat source found. Possible forest fire. Report to the Doctor." And then they rolled on. As soon as the platoon had gone, Shadow and Rouge appeared out of thin air. Shadow hit the ground hard, panting heavily but Rouge seemed to have regained her balance and landed lightly. Everyone else moved from their hiding places and they did a head count. Espio and Sonic were missing.

"Espio, come out already!" called Vector. "We have business to attend to."

"You're standing on my chest you idiot."  
Vector hopped away in surprise at the sound of Espio's voice coming from the patch of dirt he was standing on. Espio faded into view, his natural purple state returning and his chameleon body becoming visible again as he sat up, brushing the dirt off himself. Then came Sonic. The pile of parachute ashes started to shift, revealing the blue hedgehog concealed inside. He began spitting and coughing the grey flakes out of his mouth.

"Ugh, I hate fire." he said. "But I like water even less, so given my two hiding options here…"  
He indicated the lake and then the ash pile. "…I sided with fire."  
The group went to check on Shadow who was still face down in the dirt and looking drained.

"What happened, faker? Bat girl give you a hard time?" joked Sonic. As a reward he got a slap across the head from both Amy and Rouge. When Shadow finally caught his breath he managed to pant out:

"Didn't know… where to go… so I just… held the state…"

"How long were you in there for?"

"In chaos time… nearly a half hour…"

"Jesus man! You could have died doing that! Why didn't you just move?"

"I didn't know… who was around… so I couldn't… risk blowing… our cover."

"Thanks man, we owe you one. Tails, you got a plan?" Sonic turned to Tails. The Kitsune thought for a moment and checked his watch.

"We don't know where we are." he began. "So I suggest we split up. Everyone stay with your flight partner and go off in pairs to explore the island. Take note of any guard patrols or distinguishing landmarks you come across and don't be seen, whatever you do. It's 4am now, so we'll rendezvous back here at 2pm. If you get spotted or even think you were spotted, don't come back and compromise the rest of us. It's our stealth that's keeping us alive. Amy and Cream will cover island north, Espio and Silver will cover island west, Knuckles and Julie-Su will cover island east, Vector and Charmy will cover island south, Blaze and Rouge will cover island north-centre while Sonic and I will cover island south-centre. Shadow will stay here, recover and manage provisions."  
Everyone nodded their affirmation, except Shadow who grunted at being left behind but didn't protest any more than that. Seeing his displeasure, Rouge sat down next to him and whispered something to him and lightly touched his chest quite teasingly. Shadow blushed a little and shoved here away, but not in a threatening manner.

"Alright everyone, we're burning daylight here!" yelled Tails. "Let's go!"

* * *

_Unkown Island, Exact co-ordinates uncertain, Local time 2.05pm _

By two o' clock all the groups had returned to the watering hole they'd hidden near earlier that day with news of their findings. Except Sonic and Tails.

"Where could they be?" asked Knuckles. "Their scouting area was closest to here. If anything they should have been back first." Julie-Su smiled.

"Bet you ten bucks they got spotted hours ago and are running for their lives. That's probably why they're not back here." She said.

"Babe, that's way too safe a bet. Hey Shadow, throw us a drink, will you?"  
Shadow didn't respond but chucked his canteen over his shoulder. Knuckles snatched it out of the air and took a long draught before he passed it to Julie-Su. While Shadow hadn't been able to scout with the rest of the groups, his time at the watering hole hadn't been wasted. He'd managed to tear down a couple of small palm trees and fashioned their bark into a squatter shelter and their leaves into a kind of parasol. He'd also pulled some fruit from the higher up branches and purified some water from the lake so it would be drinkable. The shelter wasn't a house by any standards and the fruit and water certainly wasn't a feast, but the team could really appreciate the shade, food, drink or any kind of relief from the boiling early afternoon sunshine. Just as the sun was reaching its apex, Sonic and Tails appeared over the rise on the opposite side of the lake.

"S'up, guys?" asked Sonic as he skidded into the camp. "How did it go? Oh, food!" and so he proceeded to tear through the small supply of fruit the team had left. Tails looked on disapprovingly but quickly shifted his attention to a small tablet computer he was holding. He switched it on and as the screen flashed to life a small, oddly shaped rock began to materialise in the air above the screen.

"What is that?" asked Silver, dumbfounded.

"It's an interactive, holographic representation of the island we're currently standing on. When you guys tell me what you found, I'll mark it in on the hologram and so we'll know where we can go and where we can't. So tell me guys what did you find?"

"Well…" began Silver. "Espio and I found three guard patrols in total on island west. The place is covered in geysers. I swear those things were shooting out superheated steam and the robots weren't even flinching."

"The geysers also contained a large amount of Sulphur." added Espio, holding a handful of the yellow powder. "Robotnik could potentially be using this as chemical weapon if he's extracting it."  
Tails took it all in and swiped at the hologram a couple of times. A small representation of the geysers began popping up on the west side of the hologram and three long white lines representing the patrols, bled out from the islands centre. Tails turned to Blaze and Rouge next.

"I think there was at least six definite patrol routes we came across, but there's a chance that at least half of those were patrols going north and were only passing through the forest en route." said Blaze.  
Again Tails briefly swiped at the map and six more lines bled north from the hologram's centre but three stopped halfway to the island's northern end.

"Amy, Cream can either confirm what Blaze just said?" asked Tails.

"Definitely Tails." replied Amy. "The northern section of the island barely had any forest. Most of it was actually grassland. And those stupid robots were shooting at anything that moved up there! All the animals are scared for their lives."  
Tails waved his hand over the holograms northern end and the holographic forest shrunk into blades of grass as the white lines readjusted themselves to fit the new landscape.

"Well, it looks like it's our turn." said Knuckles. "The island's east side is mostly mountainous. Their pretty badly weathered and chipped into, so there's a strong chance of rock avalanches. There's a good chance Robotnik is mining under them. I was down there. The tunnel passages are too straight to be naturally occurring."

"I actually found these while we were there." added Julie-Su. She held out her hand to show a few large pebbles in her palm. She gave them a quick squeeze and the rock crumbled away to reveal a drop of dull grey metal inside each pebble. "It's definitely Lead. I'll take pretty good guess here and say that Robotnik is mining these for bullets for his robots. We saw a lot of those up there too." Knuckles nodded his affirmation.

"We were trapped on a ledge with a guard troupe directly below us. I tried to move their attention away from our position by triggering a rock slide, but it went wrong. A massive boulder broke away from the mountain face and landed on one of the 'bots. I thought it was crushed, but only a couple of seconds later the boulder shattered and the robot was standing there, completely unharmed." Knuckles spoke his words as fact, but sounded that he didn't even believe what he was saying. Tails swiped the hologram again and the eastern section of the island became spiked and jagged as three more lines bled across its face. Lastly, Tails turned to Vector and Charmy.

"Well, the south is pretty barren." began Vector. "It's largely a rocky plane with the occasional tree and infrequent shrub. At the islands edge, there's a stone beach that leads out to the ocean. There's a pretty large guard post there. Charmy saw it first-hand. Tell 'em buddy."

"Well… um…" The bee seemed shy and slow to start but as soon as he got going he was animated and spouting every detail. "There were 'bots across the coast as far as ya' could see! Big, ugly guys! All orange and round and stupid lookin'! Then one walks into the water and… WHOOSH!" He mimed his arms and legs sinking into his side. "Then this ring popped out of his belly and kept him up and a propeller popped out of his butt!" The team gave a small laugh at Charmy's description, except Espio and Shadow who were always the serious ones but they each managed a smirk, and Sonic even gave a light clap. Tails keyed in the final details on the hologram and a final three white lines bled towards the coast.

"From what you guys have told me, I think we're dealing with something much greater than we thought. During all our past encounters with the Eggbots they've been slow, stupid and were easily damaged and destroyed. According to what we've witnessed, these robots are aggressive, well-armed, tenacious, powerful, amphibious and smart enough to hazard the mountain paths. We have to avoid them at all costs." He gave a brief pause before continuing. "Sonic and I did a lot of checking out today on Robotnik's new fortress and with the help of some sonar and sonic-resonance-imaging; we've got a good idea of the building's layout and structure. That, coupled with the results of our soil density testing, we've managed to formulate a plan of attack!" Ears swivelled and pricked at the mention of a definite assault and the group leaned forward to catch every word.

"We've also managed to locate and expand a bunker that we can sleep in until nightfall when we'll execute the plan. It's close enough to the fortress to notice if anything changes, but far from any noted guard patrols, so we should be safe. I'll explain the plan when we get there and then we can grab some z's. Is everyone clear?"

"Clear!" they all replied.

"Alright then! I don't know about you guys, but I could really go for a nap right about now!"

**How did you guys like that bit? Sorry I haven't put anything up in a long time, but as I already explained I had a lot of technical trouble with this chapter and the next chapter. On top of this I'm going on vacation, so no work for at least 2 weeks. SORRY! Decided to double post so you could have something to mull over while I'm gone, but again apologies and I hate to keep you guys waiting. Rate, comment, review and please don't be shy about it! You guys make these stories happen, I only write 'em down!**

'**Til next time,**

**Chaos Critique**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi all, Chaos Critique here! Long chapter here, do get comfy! Sorry about not posting for so long but my computer malfunctioned and I lost the chapter, so I had to start over. Apologies for the wait but I had to re-read this like 15 times (as well as completely restarting it) as this chapter is really important and I wanted to get it perfect. Anyway, action is finally happening (as promised) and we get to see what Robotnik is really up to! This was supposed to be one long chapter, but I decided to split it between this chapter and the last chapter. As always, thanks for reading, I really appreciate the support and don't be shy if you have something to say (good or bad).**

'**Til next time,**

**Chaos Critique**

Chapter 4: Assault

_Unknown Island, Exact co-ordinates uncertain, Local time 12.30am _

When Sonic finally opened his eyes, it took him a couple of seconds to adjust to the pitch black he was lying in. He tried to sit up, but felt a weight resting across his chest and shoulder. With his eyes properly adjusted he managed to make out a pink muzzle nestled into his shoulder and an arm wrapped around his chest._ Amy of course_, he thought. Sonic tried to move away without waking her, but she had a firm grip on him and so he had to do something. He shrugged the shoulder she was sleeping on as lightly as he could. He felt her stir and then her eyes fluttered open slowly.

"Ughhh… not now Cream, it's Saturday, go back to bed…." She mumbled, still half asleep. Sonic shrugged again and this time Amy's eyes snapped open. She hopped up as quickly as she could and scooted away, blushing and fidgeting at her dress in embarrassment.

"I am soooo sorry!" she whispered. "I did not go to sleep like that! I just lay down and fell asleep and then you woke me up and I was…" she didn't go any further. "Did I mention I was sorry?"  
Sonic chuckled. Amy's face turned even redder.

"Are you laughing at my apology?" she raged.

"No, no, no." replied Sonic. "You just look really guilty when you apologize and it's cute." Realizing what he'd just said, he immediately clamped his hand over his mouth.

"I apologize because I feel guilty and you just laugh- wait… What? You think I'm cute?"

"Well, yeah." mumbled Sonic; now sorry he'd said anything. "You act all afraid that you may have offended someone and that it's a big deal, but really you didn't do anything. I… think that's cute…"

"Really?" Amy asked wistfully.

"We're supposed to execute the plan in one hour. We need to everyone get up and ready." said Sonic quickly, eager to change the subject as the conversation had headed into dangerous territory.

"The mission! I totally forgot! I'll help."

They both headed off in different direction but before he went, Sonic swore he heard "He thinks I'm cute! Wait 'til I tell Cream!" He went to Tails first and gave him a light shake to rouse him. The kitsune yawned sleepily as he sat up.

"How long 'til we start?" asked Tails.

"Roughly an hour." replied Sonic.

"Better get moving then."  
Slowly, one by one the team was roused and some sleeping couples were given a pretty rude awakening.

"Come on Blaze, up you get. We've got to get moving." chirped Sonic. The purple cat heaved herself off Silvers chest, sprang to her feet and briskly walked over to the other side of the bunker.

"Nice one, Silver. How'd you get her to cuddle up to you? Cat-Nip?"

"Shut up Sonic! I love Blaze, but as you'd love a sister. I don't think like that, and if I did, I wouldn't stoop low enough or be stupid enough to try and win Blaze over with Cat-Nip! If she found out, she'd kick my ass!" Sonic began laughing at his friend's response, but stopped when he realized Silver was being 100% serious.

"Besides…" he continued. "She's got a fire burning inside her. That's pretty handy on a cold night."  
Then Tails made the call.

"Okay, everyone! Time to suit up!"  
The boys all reached into their bags to grab their combat gear, but the girls just waited expectantly with their arm folded. Knuckles was the first to hack it.

"Um… guy's I think we should move out of the bunker."

"Why? What's wrong?" asked Sonic.

"Certain people…" he motioned with his eyes towards the girls. "…Need their space."  
Then Sonic hacked it.

"Alright guys, out of the bunker! Pronto!"  
With a groan the guy's grabbed their stuff and climbed their way out of the bunker. Once they were out, Sonic approached Knuckles.

"Dude, how did you realize that the girls wanted us out?"

"I have a girlfriend. You learn these things… or else you don't have a girlfriend for long."  
They left it at that and began changing when they were a good distance from the bunker. After fifteen minutes the team was kitted out and ready to fight. All the guys had changed in to loose, black cotton t-shirts, black cargo pants and a munitions belt that could carry each persons customised weapons and tools; except for Knuckles and Vector who were wearing black muscle shirts instead and Shadow who had a pistol tucked into a holster on his hip, a belt of grenades across his chest and a rucksack full of other weapons as well as his munitions belt. All the girls had changed into black, skin-tight cat suits except Cream who had a black skirt and black hoodie instead. They also had the same munitions belt as the guys. Everyone was given a bullet-proof vest as well but Sonic, Espio and Rouge declined, Sonic because he preferred speed, mobility and freedom to immediate protection, Espio because it impaired his camouflage abilities and Rouge because it kept her wings pinned down. After changing, they all met just on top of the bunker to sort into their individual strike teams. Sonic, Shadow, Amy and Silver would be strike team Alpha. Rouge, Espio and Blaze would be strike team Beta and Knuckles, Julie-Su and Vector would be strike team Omega. Tails, Cream and Charmy would act as Contact hub.

"You guys will need these if you're going to get through tonight." said Tails as he handed each individual a strange eyepiece that looked a lot like the scouters from _Dragonball Z _but sleeker and more aerodynamic.

"What is it?" asked Knuckles.

"It's a C.E.N.C.A." replied Tails. "A communications earpiece and navigational combat assistant. I designed and built them myself. It'll keep us in contact throughout the operation and let me see and hear everything you guys do. As well as that, it allows me to guide you with maps projected onto the eyepiece and it'll automatically give you a run-down of any mechanical enemy you encounter and pick apart its design for flaws and weak spots as long as you get at least two seconds of clear footage of it." He checked his watch. "It's almost time. We need to get to our positions. Move out."

And so, the four teams split up to perform their separate duties. The plan was simple. Contact Hub would patch into Robotnik's systems and disable his defences while sending an extraction signal to G.U.N. to pick them up. Team Beta would pick off any exterior guards and independent defences that could not be shut down by patching into the system. Team Alpha would lead a frontal assault on the base to draw all fire away as Team Omega tunnelled in the back and disabled the power source before they all converged on Robotnik. Simple. Tails, Cream and Charmy flew as quietly as they could until they reached the tower's roof where they touched down silently. Tails reached into his belt and pulled out what looked like a soda can before placing it on the ground and pushing the button on its side. There was a light zap and a spark.

"EMP was successful." whispered Tails. "We've got a minute before local tower defences reboot. I'll leave this one to you Cream." She nodded and motioned to a panel on the roof. Tails took out a screwdriver and popped open the panel. Cream hurried over and used a small paring knife from her hoodie to cut some wires before taking Tails's tablet computer and inserting the wires into the side. The screen became aglow with rushing numbers and symbols and Cream began to type ferociously. Since coming to earth, Cream had learned a lot about technology and had make herself into quite the hacker, only second to Tails. But, as Tails was frequently needed for his mechanics skills, she did most of the computer stuff now. Within thirty seconds the computer gave soft _bing_ and Cream looked up, satisfied.

"Local defences down. I'll start breaking down the firewall and deactivating everything else." she said.

"That's good. Charmy, start setting up the distress signal. Use that satellite dish over there to boost the signal. I'm going to check in on the other teams. Team Alpha leader, do you copy?"

"Reading you loud and clear Tails." replied Sonic. "We're moving into positions. Are the defences down yet?"

"Not yet. We still need confirmation from Beta. Team Beta leader, do you copy?"

"Receiving you loud and clear, honey." replied Rouge silkily. Tails felt himself blush a little but managed to keep his voice level.

"Are the outer defences taken care of yet?"

"Not yet. These outer turrets are a real bother to break quietly."

"Are they running on a separate power source to the other defences?"

"Not as far as I can tell."

"Then leave them. Cream will take care of those. Focus on the robots."

"Hold on a sec hun."  
There was a moment of silence before Tails heard something go _thud_ on the other end of the line.  
"Damn pests." muttered Rouge. "So, leave the turrets, get the 'bots. Got it. Rouge out."

"Team Omega leader, do you copy?"

"I'm kinda busy right now Tails." huffed Knuckles.

"What's the problem?"

"Soil density is far greater here than expected and there are a lot of rocks blocking the way. I need more time."

"We don't have time Knuckles. You guys will have to push it; I can't change anything. Our schedule is set. Tails out." Tails cut the conversation feed and sighed heavily before returning to his team. "How's it coming along?"

"I'm almost done with the defences, but there's a stubborn cipher that's blocking my access to the turret controls." replied Cream, not even glancing up from the tablet.

"No matter what I do, the signal won't increase." moaned Charmy. "Robotnik must be using a signal jammer."

"What?" asked Tails. He hadn't been paying attention and instead had been watching the tablets light reflected in Creams, big, round, chocolaty coloured eyes.

"The signal's being jammed!"

"Try and work around it."

"Done!" cried Cream.

"Beta Team leader reporting in." Tails heard Rouge say into his earpiece. "Last hostile down. We're good to go."

"Team Alpha leader, the outer defences are down. You're free to move." said Tails.

"Moving into positions now." came Sonics reply.

"Team Omega, we're waiting for you."

"We're in positions. There was an unexpected tunnel that gave us a couple of feet for free. Ready when you are."  
Tails walked slowly over to the open roof panel and picked out two thick wires, one red and one blue. He cut each wire open so that the copper inside was exposed.

"Everyone, I'm about to set this operation live." he said into his C.E.N.C.A. "On my count, I'm going to blow the lights and we'll begin our attack. The flash will be bright and once the lights are out, your C.E.N.C.A.'s will automatically switch into night-vision. Be ready on my count."

Sonic crouched low in anticipation as Amy raised her hammer. Underground, Knuckles, Vector and Julie-Su put their shoulder to the wall and got ready to push.

"Going live…"whispered Tails. "In five… four… three… two… one… ENGAGE!"  
And so it began.

* * *

_Unknown Island, Exact co-ordinates uncertain, local time 1.30am, Mission Ballistic online _

There was a rapid succession of loud bangs and bright flashes of white light as Tails crossed the exposed wires, overloading the electrical systems and causing the bases lights to explode. Down on the ground, the world turned into a picture of green and black as night-vision kicked in on everyones C.E.N.C.A.s. Amy swung her hammer as hard as she could just as Sonic jumped. He kicked off the face of the flailing hammer at just the right time, propelling him at top speeds toward the base entrance. He tucked tightly into a ball as he flew and punched clean through the reinforced steel of the base's doors.

"Silver, go!" came Sonics call from inside. Silver splayed his palms ad thrust them forward, his physcokenisis causing the doors to explode inwards, sending up a cloud of dust as they swung. Shadow rushed headlong into the cloud, firing off his rifle in three round bursts, muzzle flashes muted but still bright inside the grey cloud. Silver and Amy charged in after, eager to join the brawl. For the next few minutes, the base's front hallway was a chaotic battlefield of destroyed robots and battle shouts as Team Alpha shot, smashed, ripped, kicked and sliced their way through an onslaught of robots. When the tide of robots became too much, Shadow unpinned a frag grenade from his belt before punching through a robots chest plate while holding it. When he withdrew his hand, the grenade was gone.

"Amy, hit it!" he yelled. Amy's hammer swung and the robot was sent barrelling down the hall and into its comrades. Silver swept his arms wildly and all the wreckage in the hall was sent flying at the robots. No more than second later, Shadows grenade went off, the blast shaking the walls and the wreckage sent flying like huge pieces of shrapnel. The tide of enemies seemed to have been stemmed, so the team went to inspect the damage.

"Well…"began Sonic. "I think that went pretty we-"  
He was cut off by a loud groaning and a sudden metallic shriek as the roof above them began to cave in.

"Run!" But Amy remained stock still, terrified and mesmerised simultaneously, so Sonic tackled her to the ground and wrapped his arms around her head. The roof fell with a crash to wake the dead and sent tonnes upon tonnes of metal panels hurtling towards the team. When the debris finally stopped falling, the hedgehogs risked moving and searching for their team mates. Shadow had managed to avoid most of the cave-in while Silver had protected himself in a physcokinetic bubble. Sonic was kneeling on all fours, trying to support a steel girder that was slowly crushing him. The other two hedgehogs levered the girder off him and before they could say anything, Sonic was checking on Amy, who was curled up underneath him.

"Hey Ames, you okay?"

"Just a little shaken is all. You?"

"I've been through worse."  
The team cleared the wreckage before Sonic touched the side of his C.E.N.C.A. and contacted Tails.

"This is team Alpha leader signing in. Contact Hub, do you copy?"

"Copying Alpha leader. What was that crash?"

"There were too many robots to handle, so Shadow popped a grenade to clear them and suddenly the roof came down on us. I don't think this place is structurally sound. We have to abort."

"We can't compromise now. We'll just have to speed things up to minimise the chances of the building coming down. Our transmission to G.U.N. went out. We have twenty minutes."

"Okay, but the hallway is blocked off now. We need a way to the power core so we can support team Omega. There's no point in us standing around now."

"The power core is three floors below you and two hundred meters to your left. If you smash through the floor, you'll be there in no time. Contact Hub over and out." Sonic sighed briefly before changing conversation thread to Knuckles.

"Knuckles, there's been some complications. We're meeting with you in the power core ASAP."

"See you there and be careful. Something feels off here."

"I'll keep that in mind." he cut the conversation thread. "Change of plans guys, we're going down. Tails said we'll have to go through the floor to reach the power core." Shadow reached for another grenade from his belt but Sonic stopped him.

"It's not safe to set off another one of those after what happened last time. We'll have to find another way down." he paused for a moment. "I have an idea. Silver, you can use your Physcokenisis to weaken the floor structure and then Amy can smash through with her hammer. With any luck we can be there in a few minutes."

"Or we could just use that air vent?" said Amy, pointing at a large grate set into the floor.

"Sure, if you want to be boring." snapped Sonic, annoyed at his own stupidity. They jogged to the grate and Shadow shot off the bolts holding it in place. They took it in turns to drop down the chute into the ventilation system, clearing the drop before the next team mate dropped in.

"Okay Tails we're in the vents. How do we get down further?" said Sonic into his C.E.N.C.A.

"One second…" came the reply. Suddenly a blueprint of the vents appeared on the lens of Sonics C.E.N.C.A., a white arrow indicating their route.

"Thanks. Alright guys, we're heading right." So the team began their slow crawl to the power core. After a few minutes Sonic held up a hand to stop. "There's a drop up ahead. It's not too long, but be careful."  
The team continued wordlessly, until Sonic placed his hand forward to crawl and felt an absence of air vent. "We're here. I'll go first."  
Sonic slid his legs forwards and dropped down the chute. The wind rushed in his ears and through his quills as he fell, but after fifteen seconds of falling, he felt there might be something wrong with the supposed ten-foot drop. On instinct, Sonics hands and legs shot out to the side and ground against the walls of the vent. He pushed as much as he could, but the burnished steel wouldn't give him any grip. As he slid further down, his hand caught on an unexpected ledge. The sudden stop slammed him heavily into the vents side, sending deafening noise up the shaft with the blow threatening to break his grip. He gripped with everything he had, even as his handhold became slick with sweat and blood from a cut in his hand, sustained from his hasty grab. The sound of his impact had obviously reached the others as he heard Shadow's voice in his C.E.N.C.A.

"Sonic, we heard a crash. Are you alright?"

"The blueprints Tails sent me are bullshit! There's a huge drop here and I'm not even at the bottom yet! I'll radio you when I reach the bottom." Sonic changed conversation threads and went straight to Tails. "What the fuck was that dude? Those blueprints you sent me almost got me killed!"

"I'm sorry; these blueprints were the ones we got from Robotniks system. They're the most recent he had!"

"That's not good enough! Next time you mess up, someone could be dead, it'll be your fault and I won't be able to help you! Think about that!"

"Sonic I said I was sor-" but Sonic had already ended the conversation thread. Swinging from his perch, he managed to get a little grip from the walls of the chute on his hands and feet and began to slide down the chute to the bottom, leaving smear of blood on the as he slid. No more than thirty seconds later, Sonic hit a grate. With a swift kick, the grate snapped and Sonic fell through the gap and onto the floor below him.

"'Bout time you got here." Sonic spun to see Knuckles standing behind him, grinning in a self-satisfied way. His muscle shirt was ripped, he was covered in oil and had a fairly nasty looking bruise on his muzzle but Sonic was still relived to see his friend was okay. "Where's the rest of your team?" asked the echidna. Sonic didn't say anything, but took a step back and pointed up. Knuckles looked up just in time to see a pink hedgehog come hurtling out of the vent before she ploughed straight into him. Amy clambered up as quickly as she could, stepping on Knuckles face a few times in the effort, ducking out of the way in time for Shadow to have his turn of using Knuckles as a crash mat. Silver floated down a second later and was merciful enough to levitate away and not step on Knuckles's face. The echidna sat up, red-faced and fuming before yelling at Sonic:

"Some warning would've been nice!"

"Yeah, but it wouldn't have been as funny." countered Sonic. "Anyway, where's the rest of team Omega?"

"Julie and Vector got pinned down ahead by a robot. We can't advance until it's gone but we can't attack without getting ripped to shreds."

"Seriously? One robot? That's all? Considering you're such a wuss, I'll take care of it." Sonic sped around the corner and didn't get two steps before he had to pull a U-turn or get ripped to shreds by a Gatling gun. He haired it around the corner and flattened himself against the wall as quickly as hedgehogly possible.

"Having some trouble, are we?" asked Knuckles innocently.

"No! I'm just thinking out a sound plan of attack."

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, bud."  
Sonic ignored his friends taunt and crouched low, ready to sprint. He hopped up and pumped hard as he turned the corner and locked eyes with the robot. Before him stood a golem of steel, towering over him, being at least seven feet tall, perched upon dual caterpillar tracks, covered in thick plate armour, with machetes instead of hands and a smoking Gatling gun set into its chest. The Gatling gun tore at the ground around Sonics feet as he ran headlong at the machine, never breaking eye contact. Just before the hedgehog was about to plough into the robot, he dropped to his knees, leaned back, clamped his arms to his chest and slid clean underneath it. The robot tried to slash him with its machete, but missed, giving Sonic enough time to take cover behind the next corner. His C.E.N.C.A. began to work as it picked apart the robots design and highlighted three main weak spots. The neck, the shoulder joint and the bolts holding the Gatling gun into place.

"Knuckles, I found a weak spot, but I need your help. I'll draw its fire, then you have to hit its shoulder as hard as you can. Don't ask questions, just do it."  
Sonic sprinted out of cover and was immediately assaulted by a torrent of bullets as the robot swung its chest-mounted M61 Vulcan in his direction. Knuckles took the cue and sprinted out as well, jumped and threw a lightning-fast punch straight into the robot's shoulder joint. The joint crumbled under the blow as the impact buckled the metal and completely severed the connections, sending the arm flying. The robot turned and slashed at Knuckles but left it's back exposed. Sonic kicked up a pointed shard of metal with his sneaker as he ran. He leaped, snatched it out of the air as he fell, and landed on the robots shoulder. He plunged the shard deep into the robots neck, severing the mess of wires in its neck joint. Suddenly the machine began to spaz out, spinning, slashing and firing wildly. Sonic was thrown off its shoulder from its violent movements as Knuckles hit the ground to avoid being shot, but seeing the discarded machete he acted. He rolled; picking up the machete as he did so, came up in a crouch and threw the arm like a javelin in one fluid movement. The projectile went straight through the robots spinal column, severing the machines lower half from its top half and leaving it a flailing one-armed torso on the ground but still firing, slashing and dangerous. Knuckles didn't hesitate, but leaped onto the torso, grabbed the Gatling gun and ripped it clean out before redirecting its fire towards the robot. Its head literally disintegrated under the weight of the fire and soon the torso lay broken and void of motion. Knuckles dropped the gun with look of disgust and beckoned his friends out of hiding. Shadow, Amy and Silver all crept around the corner as Sonic pulled himself to his feet, fighting dizziness, all the while Knuckle searched frantically for his other Team mates.

"JULIE-SU! VECTOR!" he yelled. He took a momentary step back and the floor panel in front of him popped open, revealing his friend and girlfriend hidden inside. Julie-Su immediately jumped out and wrapped her arms around his neck. Knuckles gladly returned the gesture and for a moment they were at peace.

"Any chance I could get in on that?" asked Vector, only half-joking. Sonic shook his head and tutted.

"Dude, I'm the worst romance in the world and even I know you just killed a tender moment."  
Julie-Su and Knuckles let go of each other, the moment passed, and were about to move on when Shadow stopped them.

"We shouldn't be moving yet. Something's not right here. Contact Hub, apparently disabled security, but all we've encountered since we got here are robots, turrets, traps and…" he kicked a discarded piece of the broken golem robot. "…these things." There was mumble of agreement from most of the group but, Sonic remained stubborn.

"Why are we even talking about this? Tails is the best tech guy in the world; if he says he's got it, he's got it!"

"That's not what it sounded like in the air vent." countered Shadow. Sonic's upper lip twitched to momentarily reveal a snarl as his quills bristled and his ears flattened.

"Watch your words faker. In such a dangerous place, accidents are just waiting to happen. We wouldn't want one of _those _to happen now, would we?" Sonic breathed each word with enough venom to kill a mongoose and combined with his veiled threat, it chilled his friends (even Shadow) to hear the usually peppy hedgehog speak so coldly. Sonic looked about ready to reach for a weapon, so Knuckles stepped in to break the rising tension.

"Shadow's right Sonic." stated Knuckles. "There's something wrong here. I can feel it too. At the very least, you should radio Tails and tell him about the robot."  
Knuckles words seemed to bring Sonic out of his red mist but now he just looked angry rather than homicidal as he was a few seconds ago. He looked like he was going to argue, but stopped himself and radioed Tails instead.

"Team Alpha leader to Contact Hub. Requesting reply."

"Oh it's you…" said Tails, Sonics earlier harsh words still affecting him according to the bitterness in his voice. "…what's the problem? More faulty blueprints?" he sneered sarcastically. Sonic sighed in exasperation. If there was one thing he didn't need right now, was Tails's attitude.

"No Tails, we might have a bigger problem on our hands. Have you been watching our video feed?"

"No. I've been directing Team Beta for the last while. Why do you ask?"

"We ran into one of these things. I'm transmitting schematics now." Sonic watched as the output bar on the eyepiece of his filled up and the robots schematics were transmitted straight to Tails.

"Hmmm." mumbled Tails thoughtfully. "I've never seen a design like this before. It looks like one of the E-3 series robots but seem more heavily armoured and weaponised. They don't seem to have great movement capabilities or speed, but I suppose they make up for it in strength and fire power." He went quiet for a minute while he thought.  
"Avoid these things at all cost. You're lucky you took down this one as it is. If you see one and you can't escape immediately, stab it in the neck and it should malfunction long enough for you to hide at least. Funny you should mention this though; Beta has said that there have been active machine gun turrets on the outer walls… Hold on a sec." Tails switched off the comms and returned his attention to his team.

"Cream, I need you to do a full diagnostics sweep of the building, especially the robot control units and sentry turrets. Charmy, how much time to we have until the Harrier gets here?"

"The transmission back warned of delays, so I'd say maybe an extra ten minutes at least."

"Good. Cream, how's that sweep coming along?"

"Nothing unusual here Tails. Everything is on tra- hold on…" She tapped the screen of the pad a few times and enlarged one area. "It looks like there's an independent control console that's been manually accessing defences. I'll do a remote shut-down." She tapped the screen a few more times, swiped once and was done. "There." But suddenly the pads screen began flashing red and displaying urgent messages. Creams eyes widened (a serious feat considering the size of her eyes normally) in panic and she began furiously tapping at the pad again all while muttering:  
"No, no, no ,no, no, no, no! This can't be happening!"

"Cream, what's going on?" asked Tails. Cream tearfully up from the screen and right into Tails's eyes.

"They're dead Tails. They're dead and it's my fault…"

"Who's dead? What's happening Cream?"

"There's another hacker in the building Tails. They used the control console as a decoy to locate us from my remote shut-down and switch off our local access to Robotniks systems. Now, with us out, they're re-activating the defences and there's nothing I can do to stop them. Our friends are going to die in there!" Tails grabbed Cream firmly by the shoulders and made her look him in the eye as he spoke.

"Don't ever say that! It's not over until it's too late and even then you still keep trying! We're going in there and getting our friends out and then we're going to leave this place alive with, our mission accomplished. You hear me?" Tails spoke each word with such conviction, with such certainty that Cream couldn't help but feel reassured. He nodded her head vigorously in agreement. "Now, I need you to use any connections we have left to try to find a secure access point we can use to re-patch the system before the defences reboot. Can you do that?" Cream didn't even reply, just returned her attention to the pad with renewed vigour. After about thirty seconds, she looked up.

"The power core is our best bet. If we go there we'll have the team's protection, you can disable the base's power, effectively shutting down everything plus it's one of the three places in the base with a secure connection."

"I guess that's where we're going then." concluded Tails. He took out his wrench and levered the grate off the first air vent he found and beckoned his team mates to follow him as they began their crawl to the power core and saving their friends lives.

"Tails? Tails!" Sonic yelled. He got no answer though, as his C.E.N.C.A. played back nothing but static. "Guys, something's wrong." Just as he said it, a red warning light began to flash on the nearby wall and sirens began to blare. There was a loud _boom_ behind them as a huge, armoured door fell from the ceiling and sealed off the way they had come just as ceiling panels slid back to reveal automatic sentry guns swinging towards Sonic and his team.

"No shit Sherlock!" said Knuckles.

"Run!" Nobody knew who yelled it, but nobody had any trouble complying with that plan. The team took off at a full on sprint towards the power core, sentry guns firing and narrowly missing as more armoured doors kept dropping behind them at an alarming rate. They turned a left corner to find a narrow doorway not far ahead of them.

"The power core!" Spurred on by the promise of freedom, the team increased it's already exhausting pace as the armoured doors closed in on them. Just before they had reached the doorway, an armoured door fell down from the frame to seal off the entrance. Vector was quickest to react and dropped to the floor, skidded until stopping under the doorway and caught the door in a bench press position, keeping it held up. The rest of the team slid through the remaining gap and once on the other side, stuffed Amy's hammer into the gap to wedge it, before pulling the exhausted Vector out by his tail. The hammer crumpled from the doors weight no more than a second after they had pulled him out. The team took a minute to catch their breath in the semi-darkness of the power core; the only source of light being a dull throbbing from the centre of the circular room. When everyone's heart rate had returned to normal, someone finally got the nerve to ask the question on everyone's mind.

"Now what?" asked Julie-Su. The question was pretty much answered when another huge, golem robot trundled out of the heavy shadows of the room's far side, huge fists raised and ready for combat. Without a word, the team was up and already searching for the exit or some means of escape, but apart from the way they'd come, the room was completely sealed off. With no other options left, the team turned to face the robot.

"Remember guys, go for the weak spots: the head, shoulder and gun fastenings!" yelled Sonic. The team broke away and tried to flank the robot, but it wheeled backwards and kept its back to the wall. Knuckles leapt forward to try and catch it off guard, but the robots chest opened up and belched a jet of flames in his direction. Knuckles turned somewhat in the air to avoid the torrent and managed to escape with only a slightly charred dreadlock as he backed off. There was a loud _ping_ as bullets ricocheted off the robot's armour and it turned to see Shadow uselessly picking at it with his M4 Carbine. It unleashed a torrent of flame in his direction as well. Just the distraction they'd needed. Amy charged out, hammer ready, and made a mad swing for its shoulder joint. Just as it seemed the strike was about to connect, the robot turned with surprising speed and grabbed Amy out of the air, trapping her in its goliath fist. Silver reached out with his Physcokenisis and tried to pry the monster's hand open, but was so focused on his task; he missed the backhander that was travelling towards him. The strike hit solidly and Silver was sent bowling across the room to the opposite wall. Heads turned to watch him fly and the golem attacked in the moment of hesitation. It pitched Amy straight into Sonic, who both went sliding across the room from the blows force, before it surged forward and attempted to slam Vector into the ground. The crocodile dodge-rolled away from the strike but the robot caught him by his tail before he could get away entirely and kept him pinned in place. Julie-Su pulled out her E.P.P. (Electric Pulse Pistol) and fired at the exposed wiring of the robots neck. Two darts on wires shot out of the pistol, much like a Taser, but before they could hit the sweet spot, the robot reached out and entangled them in its fingers. With a sharp tug, it pulled Julie-Su off her feet and into its reach. It went to crush Julie-Su with a Hammer-Fist strike, but Knuckles slid in and caught the fist to protect his girlfriend. The robot threw a powerhouse punch that flattened the occupied Knuckles against the opposite wall. Seeing Vector trying to run, it picked him up by the tail as a five-year-old might do with a yo-yo before swinging him a couple of times around its head and firing him at the opposite wall, knocking down Shadow in the process as the hedgehog was desperately trying to strafe back and forth to get a shot at the robots wiring. Then it picked up Julie-Su in one giant fist and motored over to where her team mates lay to finish the job. Silver was the only one even attempting to stand up and was failing at it when the looming golem robot finally reached him. It casually tossed Julie-Su into him before using one massive forearm to pin them all to the wall and slowly bring them up, level with its chest. All the mobians began to push with all they had left in a last-ditch attempt to overpower the robot, but despite its arm giving way for a second, it simply pressed down on its forearm with its other hand, ending any resistance they were giving. Just as the team began to consider if things could get any worse they heard the tell-tale hiss of a flamethrower about to fire.

"Well, it's been nice knowing you guys…" was all Sonic said. With heads turned away, hands held and fingers intertwined the group waited for the end to come, but as an inferno raged to greet them, they felt no heat. Wondering why they weren't dead, the team turned to see a purple cat standing on the robots forearm with a look of triumph and boredom laced into her features.

"Blaze?" yelped Sonic in disbelief.

"It is I hedgehog. If you were expecting me to let you burn to death, then I'm sad to say you'll be quite disappointed with the results." Then she returned her attention to the robot. "Alright you walking scrap yard, let us see what that glorified cigarette lighter of yours can do." As if rising to the challenge, the robot unleashed another inferno from his chest, but Blaze did not even flinch; she simply raised her hand. The flames parted in front of her and then came to rest in her other palm. When the robot finally ended the jet of fire, she was carelessly tossing a medium-sized fireball from paw to paw, tutting all the while.

"I'm unimpressed. Now, let's see if you're as fire-proof as I am!"  
With that she leapt forward and drove the fireball straight down the tube leading to the robots gas chamber. The canister instantly ignited, creating a blinding explosion that showered flame and robot parts everywhere. When the explosion had died down and visibility had returned, only half the robot remained, the rest had gone or had been vaporized in the blast. Still, its left side moved rumbled forward, refusing to die and tried to crush them as its final struggle, but there was a sudden crunch and its remaining arm was smashed off. The robots head swiveled to search for this new danger, when its neck spontaneously ripped open, sending cascading sprays off oil and hydraulic fluid over the mobians, as a severed artery would if viciously sliced open. The humongous machine keeled over and fell with a crash as its life bled out through its piping, leaving them safe at last.

"You may reveal yourselves if you wish." called Blaze. On cue, Rouge silently glided down from the ceiling, her high-heeled boots only making a gently _clack_ as she touched down on the concrete floor, just as Espio faded into view, standing atop the dead robot shell; _kunai _knife in hand and totally covered in oil.

"You guys sure choose your moment to show up." Quipped Sonic.

"_The man with sword to his enemy's throat does not search for assassins in the_ shadows." Quoted Espio. "With that robot so sure of its victory, it was unprepared for another assault. If we had struck any sooner, we could have failed."

"You still could have given us a little warning." huffed Shadow moodily.

"Then I wouldn't have these." smirked Rouge. She tapped the side of her C.E.N.C.A. and a photo popped up on everyone's eyepiece. It showed the terrified expressions of Teams Alpha and Omega, seconds before the robot was going to incinerate them. Amy's jaw dropped.

"You photographed that?" she shrieked.

"Yep. And I'm totally going to blackmail you all with these later…"  
Then she strode quite teasingly over to Shadow and lightly brushed his chest hair with the tip of her index finger. "…unless one very handsome hedgehog can convince me otherwise."  
That was the first time anyone on the team had seen Shadow blush, but quickly the gears in his head started turning again, so he decided to roll with the old physco stereotype. Quick as a flash, he whipped out his pistol and held the shining barrel an inch from Rouges forehead.

"Convinced yet?" he asked with a smirk. The rest of his team smirked too, seeing Rouge's joke so easily turned on her.

"Now that this _happy_ family is back together…" said Sonic sarcastically. "…I think we should get Tails working on how we get this power out." He reopened his conversation thread with Tails and attempted to radio the kitsune again. "Contact Hub, we're in the power core. Requesting steps for disabling and disassembly."

"Request granted." Tails's voice come from the C.E.N.C.A. on Sonics ear, but echoed from the air vent just above his head. Sonics head swiveled upwards to see Tails dropping out of the vent and land softly on the floor below. The team's bewilderment only increased as they saw the rest of Contact Hub out of come sliding out of the same air vent. Charmy buzzed down easily, but Creams ears got caught in the up in the vent as she began to fall, and so she couldn't build up sufficient force to break her fall. Seeing what was happening, Tails took a quick step forward and prepared to catch her. Cream fell perfectly into Tails's outstretched arms and he took her weight as easily as he would catch a pillow.

"Thanks Tails." She said and, with little uncertainty, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek for his troubles. "This isn't the first time you've caught me when I was falling tonight." Tails could already see the "_Awwww, isn't that sweet?" _expressions coming onto his team mates features, just as he could feel himself turning red with embarrassment; so he put Cream down as quickly as possible without seeming like he was desperate to get rid of her. He turned to address the team, trying to disguise the redness that was already flowing into his cheeks.

"There have been a few complications. Due to an independent hacker in the building, we've been patched out of the system. This room is currently the safest access point left in the building. Cream will try and disable the defences once more from here, while I will disable the power source. We've only got a few minutes left before extraction arrives, so we need to be protected while we work. Can you guys do that?"

"Tails, we already cleared this room, and it's totally airtight. What could possibly get us in here?" asked Sonic with bravado.

"What indeed, Sonic? What indeed?"  
Every head in the room whipped around to the source of this new voice, leading them up to a hitherto unnoticed balcony at the point of intersection between the ceiling and the wall. Framed on the balcony and surrounded by a blinding white light, stood the silhouette of a tall, but fat, balding man with an unimaginably huge moustache. Sonic took a step forward.

"Robotnik!" Sonic yelled.

"Me."  
Sonic reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold lined badge and held it in the air.

"Robotnik, on my authority as a G.U.N. agent, I order you to surrender now on charges of possession of illegal weaponry, inciting war, the assault and murder of fifteen U.S. airmen and terrorism. Once in our custody, you'll reveal your plans to us and order your forces to stand down. Make your choice."

But Robotnik didn't speak. He just began to laugh. A low rolling chuckle at first, but it soon built to a crescendo of bellowing, full-bodied howling. And all the while, Sonic grew ever more annoyed and irritated.

"What's so funny?" he managed to yell over Robotniks laughter.

"What is amusing…" managed the Robotnik after much more laughter. "…is that you are so naïve, that you believe that you can come to _my_ Island, invade _my _fortress, destroy_ my_ robots and think that you can take _me_ prisoner? I think not. But, your stupidity extends ever further. Do think you coming here is a coincidence? That the only thirteen beings that could ever threaten my empire, be delivered to me so nicely?"

"Enough games! Start making sense!"

"As you wish. Simply hedgehog, my plan is not to incite war between the powers here on earth. Oh no, my plan delves much deeper than that. Everything that has happened to you thus far has been a part of my scheme. Your recruitment into G.U.N. was my doing. The death of that Commander of yours. Oh, what was his name? Morain. Of course!" The whole team stiffened at the mention of their Commanders name but did not make a move as Robotnik continued to monologue. "His death brought you all here for revenge. My robots and purposeful design flaws forced you to alter your plans of attack, so that you all ended up here. Did you really think that my firewall would be breached by such lowly hackers as yourself? Ridiculous!" he paused a moment for breath before he continued, but more hushed now and more malicious than ever. "You're trapped here. And seeing as you die tonight, I'll let you hear the plan you are so desperate to stop. At the UN general meeting, the Russian prime minister will die by the hand of a G.U.N. operative. The U.S.A. and Russia will attempt to destroy each other, but I will be ready and will capture their arsenals before the strikes are made. Then, I will hold this world's most powerful weapon and with it-"

"-you'll conquer the world and build Eggman Land on its ruins. We've heard the story before." snapped Sonic.

"Ah, but that is where you're wrong hedgehog. I don't want this planet. It's old, scarred, diseased and dying. I need a world with more life, more energy, more vibrancy…" his voice dropped to a whisper as me spoke the last three words. "…and more chaos." Heart beats quickened in the chests of the collected group as they finally began to grasp the full meaning of Robotnik's statement. Though Sonic knew what it meant, he had to know for sure. He had to crush every last bit of hope, every chance of him being mistaken and every chance that Robotnik really wasn't going to go through.

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?" Sonic roared, throat going raw from the intensity of his anger. "TALK!"

"Don't you get it pest?" spat Robotnik. "Once I have what I want I'm going to destroy all life on this planet! And once I'm done, I'm going back to Mobius and doing it all over again! The Eggman Empire will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of the old world, and you won't be able to stop me because you and everyone else you know WILL BE **DEAD! **AHHH HAAAAHHH HAAAAHH HAAAAAA!"  
His laugh rang out cold and mocking to the world, the laugh of a man who'd truly lost his humanity and his mind. Unable to contain himself any longer, Sonic let loose a yell that embodied every drop of hatred he felt for such a man with such little regard for life, human or not.

"**YOU MONSTER! I HAD HALF A MIND OF LETTING YOU LIVE, BUT NOW I'M GONNA HAVE YOUR HEAD ON A FUCKING PLATTER!" **Sonic's hand shot out and grabbed Tails's hand as he charged towards Robotnik. Tails recognised the move and reached for Knuckles. The echidna grabbed his remaining hand and swung him around once before sending him flying clean into the air. Tails and Sonic spun side-by-side, gaining momentum, until Tails let go and Sonic rocketed straight for Robotnik. Fist drawn back in anticipation of attack, the hedgehog barreled onwards with nothing on his mind but blood.

"**YOU'RE MINE!"** But just as Sonic finished the sentence, a flash of green fired out of the shadows on the far side of the room. The green shape slammed hard into Sonic's side, sending him crashing back to earth and saving Robotnik in the process. The green shape bounced back into the dark as Sonic angrily shook himself as he scrambled to his feet.

"What was that?" he raged.

"A little extra help, hedgehog." said Robotnik. "One needs such things when destroying ones mortal enemy. I'm afraid I can't hang around, but I'll re-watch your slaughter on the security feed later. Ta ta now." Then Robotnik strode away merrily as the balcony he had been standing on was enveloped into the wall. But the whole team's attention was focused on the spot where that moving flash of colour had come from. Then they heard footsteps. Softly at first but they grew every louder until they drowned out even the teams heavy breathing. Then a shape appeared in the dark. It was small and unfocused but sharpened as it moved slowly from the shadows. Out into the light stepped the colour and the shape, two beings in one. There stood a hedgehog, a toxic green from quill to foot. On his shoulders sat an open leather jacket with painted flames running up the arms and all manner of buckles and belts hanging around the waist. The open jacket revealed two hideous, parallel scars running the width of his belly. On his feet sat a pair on modified skater shoes with incalculable amounts of graffiti on the back and sides. Perched on his nose were a pair of cheap looking, red, plastic framed sunglasses; partially concealing a pair of cold, calculating, shark-like eyes the same shade of blue as a whirlpool. The eyes stayed fixated on the team as a sharp toothed, murderous grin spread from the corners of his mouth.

"Scourge…" was all Sonic managed before his throat contracted.

"In the flesh."

**Well? What did you guys think? I'm not sure how well I choreographed the fights, but I hope you guys didn't end up confused or anything! Sorry to say, but am on vacation now so will not be writing anything for a while now, but will put the work in when I'm back home and try and keep you guys updated. As always, keep reading, feel free to rate, comment or critique the work and I can't say this enough, I have so much fun writing these and I wouldn't keep going if it wasn't the massive support I get from the online writers community. Thanks for taking the time to read and:**

'**Til next time,  
Chaos Critique**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys. School time has finally rolled back around, forcing me to do one thing I really didn't want to do: quit writing the fan fiction until I can get back on track and find some free time. Unfortunately, until Christmas, I can only promise a chapter a month if even that, provided I don't have any major setbacks or difficulties. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, as it'll be the last for a while, the longest and (hopefully) the best.**

'**Til next time,**

**Chaos Critique**

Chapter 5: Conflict

_Unknown Island, Robotnik Stronghold, Subterranean Power Core room, Exact co-ordinates unknown, Local Time 1.45am_

The two hedgehogs stared each other down from across the room, each one's eyes daring his opponent to crack. The room's edges were saturated in darkness, the hungry shadows only kept at bay by the weak, pulsing light of the power core. The air hung thick and oppressive over the G.U.N. Black Ops team, tasting like sweat and fear. Sonic spoke first, words carefully chosen to show force, but not to provoke.

"I thought we'd left you in Negative Zone prison last time we met."  
Scourges grin grew wider.

"I busted out… with a little help from a special someone." As he spoke, a red tailed fox stepped from out of the shadows. Her build was slender and willowy, but she held an air of seduction and malice, all this accentuated through her totally black outfit; from her gloves to her boots, tight pants and belly top. She sidled up next Scourge and pressed her body as close to him as possible as he wrapped an arm around her waist and held her close.

"I think you all remember Fiona."  
Fiona turned to them with a grin very much like Scourges.

"Hiya guys!" she chirped with sarcastic sweetness and innocence. "It's really nice to see you! What has it been? Oh yeah, eight months since you dropped me in that shithole of a prison to rot. But, luckily I found my man Scourgey here and we made a happy little exit while the place was burning to the ground."

"But that's not even the best part." continued Scourge. "Then we had a romantic weekend turning the Negative Zone into our own personal anarchy playground." Fiona hugged Scourge tighter.

"It was the happiest weekend of my life." Then they kissed, but only for a moment.

"That still doesn't explain why you're here." said Sonic. Scourge shrugged.

"I was gettin' to that. I was in charge pretty soon. Remodelled the place in my own image. But I was bored. With the Zone Cops gone and nobody brave or stupid enough to rise up against me, I'd run out of play things." he cracked a devilish grin. "That's when egghead came along. He offered me a job I couldn't refuse. I get to kill you and he gives me earth to do what I want with, with easy access between here and the Negative Zone. I'd never be bored again. Heck, I was so bored I would've done the job just for the kick of it! But payment is always nice."

"Not to burst your bubble Scourge, but you and Fiona are hardly security enough to take all of us on." growled Sonic. But Scourge just kept on grinning.

"I thought you'd say that. That's why when I was bustin' out, I brought along a few friends. It was mutual agreement. A 'you scratch my back and I scratch yours' kinda' thing."

"In truth it was more like 'We let you out, you don't burn to death and you help us conquer the Negative Zone'." added Fiona.

"Then when we got the job, they leapt at the chance to meet you guys. They were so excited. I just couldn't say no. So I brought them along. The Suppression Squad."  
There was a moment of silence before a light chuckle escaped from Sonic's lips.

"Really? You think you're going to kill us with Boomer the Walrus and Patch D'Coolette?"

"Those losers?" Scourge snorted and the smile fell from his lips. "I poured extra lighter fluid in their cells along with the rest of those playground bully rejects I used to call a team." There was sudden intake of breathe from across the room as Sonic's teams were startled by Scourge's brutality and heartless admission. Then the minds started turning at who else he could have gotten to fill their shoes. Scourges grin began to creep back across his face now accompanied by a sparkle of sadistic pleasure in his eyes as he saw their heads go round in circles.

"I know what you're all thinking. I can see it in your eyes. Who, oh who will Scourge have with him this time?" he said in a mock sing-song voice. "They were some interesting characters I met in the max security wing of the prison. Decent enough guys once you look past the mass murder records. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new and even deadlier Suppression Squad!"

There was a sudden ensemble of loud taps and thuds behind Scourge as a previously unnoticed mass of bodies moved forward into the light. The squad came to a halt just at the edge of the ring of illumination there features clearly visible, but still drenched in shadows, giving them a sharp, hollow, demonic quality. Sonic felt himself and the rest of his team stiffen at the sight before them. As if in some kind of warped, masochistic perception of reality each team member stared across the room at their duplicate. The copies were almost identical in features, but off in some unpleasant, subtle manner. Sonic scanned the room eyes running over these parodies of his friends.

First he saw Tails, body taller and leaner with a leather jacket similar to Scourges but red and grey instead with studded belts on his wrists, just above his gloves. His face was a mask of condescension and contempt with strange piercings glittering on his ears in the eerie half-light.

Then came Knuckles, his entire body covered in a network of intricate tribal tattoos that ran from head to foot, but most heavily on his chest and dreadlocks. His natural knuckle spikes had been further augmented by two vicious looking silver blades attached at the knuckles and secured at the wrist. He stood easily with his arms crossed, eyes focused in predatorial calculation. Amy was next. Though this one did not look like Amy currently, she was almost identical to Amy when she'd been a few years younger. Though she was dressed and looked like an innocent, sweet girl in puffy shouldered T-shirt, purple sneakers and yellow tutu style skirt, her eyes gleamed with a psychotic eagerness for pain and suffering. There was what looked like a dog-collar biting painfully into her neck that flashed every time she inched forward. Each forward motion made her wince and her already rapid and shallow breathing became ever more erratic as did her soft whispering and maniacal giggling. It was if she were a hungry attack dog on a leash, straining against her bonds to maul and tear at anything she could see.

By her side stood Cream, or some strange Goth version of her. Her usual dress had been replaced by a ripped and ragged black skirt and vest over a purple shirt with suspiciously blood-like stains on the front, coupled with fishnet arm covers that extended to the start of her black fingerless gloves. Her legs were covered in hooped purple and black tights that disappeared inside pair of massively oversized Doc Martens style boots. She glanced over at Sonic's team whilst toying carelessly with a model 52 Balisong Butterfly Knife that clicked as she flicked and weaved the knife in and out of her fingers. Her usually large, sparkling eyes were set back in deep shadows by a combination of heavy eyeliner and the rooms' half-light giving them a somewhat lifeless quality, coupled with a sadistic smirk that hung just on the edge of her mouth they were both in such stark contrast to the real Cream, it would have been laughable if hadn't been so creepy.  
Sonic almost stumbled backwards as he spotted what looked like Mephiles standing among the squad, but quickly realized it was Shadow's doppelganger. Along with the change in colour, anti-Shadow had two red raw scars running up both cheeks. Both looked very fresh and had been crudely stitched with black thread that didn't quite hold the wounds closed, leaving areas where blood and pus still leaked through. Strapped to his back were two large assault rifles, crossed in an x formation, being fed by two chains of bullets that crisscrossed his chest.  
Straight behind him stood the Chaotix in their usual group. Vector was the most radically changed with his scales now a fiery red, pockmarked with small scars, and a total lack of his headphones and gold jewelry. His wrist cuffs had also been replaced with heavy Iron shackles with chains hanging off the ends, a dead giveaway of his earlier imprisonment. Espio, standing to anti-Vectors left, had a tatty red scarf wound around his neck with a number of black calligraphic symbols emblazoned into the material. His hand rested on the pommel of a deadly, curved _Katana_ that hung against his waist. His expression was unreadable. Charmy by extent, couldn't have been more easily read if he'd written his thoughts all over his face. Every detail about him screamed danger, violence and blood. His helmet had changed considerably, now more like a motorcycle helmet than a flying cap, adorned with various scratches and marks from previous bouts. His jacket and sneakers were now blood red and badly patched together, but on closer inspection they were actually scraps of materials torn from other clothes, trophies taken from defeated opponents.  
Behind the Chaotix were Rouge and Julie-Su who were occasionally shooting glances at each other with as much spiteful poison as they were showing towards the Black Ops team. Rouge had totally lost all her glam, make-up and accessories, her being loosely dressed in a dirt brown tank top, black slacks and muddy black boots. Her general air was one of hateful disinterest. The whole effect had sharpened her features but downgraded her looks, making her threateningly pretty instead of seductively beautiful. Her entire persona really gave the image of someone who didn't care. Not about themselves, not about anyone else or anything else, almost to point that if the very earth beneath her feet gave way right then and there, it wouldn't have made a difference to her.  
Julie-Su had also changed radically, having lost her tomboyish looks in favor of a more seductive and sleek apparel. She sported a skin-tight black cat suit with the front zipper pulled down shamefully low and a wicked looking whip curled beside her thigh. Each one of her dreadlocks shone to perfection and were arranged immaculately around her head. On top of that, all her cybernetic implants were gone, making her a fully organic being once again. She was now beautiful in every sense of the word, but all the make-up and clothes created a sense of falseness about her, something cold, dangerous and unreal about her person. She was somewhat like an exotic berry, beautiful on the surface but pure poison underneath.  
At the very back of the Squad stood Silver, only his silhouette visible due to the rooms' poor light levels. As if sensing he was being looked at, he began a slow walk from the back of the group up to the front where the light was better. Each step he took echoed with a loud _clack_ as his hard soled shoes resounded off the floor, each_ clack_ accompanied by a strange _hiss._ When he finally emerged into the light Sonic had a double-take moment where he actually had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't imagining what he was seeing. The entirety of Silvers' left eye had been replaced by a cybernetic visual receptor that glided over the team searchingly with its blood red pupil. Everything from his right shoulder down had been mechanised as well, leaving him with an armour-plated right arm and hand tipped with murderous looking steel claws. Everything below his waist had also been cybernetically replaced, making the pistons in his legs chug and hiss with each step. His red pupil surveyed the team slowly until it came to rest on his Mobius Prime counterpart, upon which a small smirk rose to his lips as he stared at Silvers confused and intimidated face. He lunged fractionally forward and laughed cruelly as Silver flinched from across the room before turning back and retreating into the mob.  
But there was something still missing from the group… or _someone_.

"You can look for the cat girl all you want but you won't find her. She ain't here." Said Scourge. "Don't worry, we took care of here."  
Sonic had the feeling that Scourge meant "taking care" of someone in less of an animal shelter way, than he meant "taking care" of them in an Al Pacino way.

"She was a Zone Cop." He rambled on. "Last one left in the city after the takeover. I tried to recruit her actually. I figured she'd be useful in a scrap, but you know Zone Cops, bunch of losers spouting out stuff about _honour_, _loyalty and protecting the citizens of the zones._ She put up a fight. Had some pretty sharp claws too, ain't that right Shadow?" Scourge called back to his underling and laughed as anti-Shadow touched the ragged scars on his face, wincing at both the pain of the memory and his current agony.

"But you know what happens to cats that scratch people, blue?" asked Scourge. Sonic had a feeling he was getting an answer whether he liked it or not. "They get de-clawed. We de-clawed the cat."  
Scourge pulled Fiona closer to him, turning her front towards the Black Ops team as he did so, revealing a weird necklace that they hadn't noticed in the dark before, hanging around her neck. At first glance it appeared to be no more than a leather strap with a couple of sharpened flint pieces attached to it, but after looking for a while, the shapes became much clearer until they resolved themselves into individual claws. _Cat claws. Cat claws and teeth._ Silver visibly stiffened at the sight, his hand wandering meaningfully towards his knife pouch. But Scourge kept on going.

"She cried you know?" Continued Scourge, unfazed. "Cried a lot actually. She begged too. Mostly for us to stop, but she begged for death a couple of times too." Scourges grin grew to reveal a single sparkling fang, matching his eyes in twinkling sadistic delight. "She got her wish eventually."  
Silver was visible shaking now, his rage barely contained as a red mist began to invade his mind.

"Despite all the screaming and crying though, I think she kinda' liked it. I know I did."

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH HHHHHHH!"  
Silver finally rage finally broke as he burst through his team, viciously elbowing or shoving aside anyone in his way. We swung his right arm forward in throwing motion, sending tens of small throwing knives bursting out of his knife pouch and hurtling towards Scourge. Scourge calmly shoved Fiona away as he stood and waited for the knives to hit. There was a sudden whirlwind of green that left Scourge standing in the same spot as if having not moved, but all Silvers throwing knives were now piled neatly in front of his feet. Silver reached pack and pulled two combat knives out of his knife sheathes before hurling himself at Scourge with his physcokenisis. Scourge blurred briefly as he dodged Silvers failed attack, but Silver went with it, kicking off the opposite wall and launching a barrage of deadly knife swipes at Scourge. Scourge effortlessly glided and swayed in and out of each strike, leaving Silver angrier and even more desperate after each attack. The Suppression squad cheered and cat called for their leader all the while hurling insults at Silver.  
Sonic was at ends with what to do. If he let it drag on, Scourge would get tired of toying with Silver and end the fight. The odds that he'd kill him were about 50/50. However, if he stepped in now, Scourge would panic and kill Silver for sure. All he could do was wait and hope for the best. Silver was now running on pure adrenaline, his muscles having exhausted from three minutes of relentless attack without so much as a seconds respite. He executed a powerful, backhand swipe that Scourge effortlessly dodged as the blade shattered as it collided with the concrete walls. Not breaking flow, Silver tossed his remaining knife to his better hand and continued his assault with a low ankle slash. Scourge took a small hop back to avoid the blade before executing a stomping front kick straight onto Silvers knife hand. Silver let out an involuntary yelp of pain as Scourges foot crunched down on top of his hand, but was quickly silenced by another swift foot to his face that sent him sprawling on the floor. Now incensed beyond belief but undaunted by his lack of a weapon, Silver flipped back onto his feet before charging back at Scourge with a feral volley of rapid-fire punches and kicks. But every punch or kick he threw slammed into a strong palm or forearm raised in a defence or counter. Now desperate, Silver backed off for just enough time to gather as much physcokinetic energy as he could before channelling every last drop of it into his fist. Charging forward, Silver looked to execute a right hook on Scourge, but at the last minute retracted his fist as he pivoted on his right toe, sending his left heel hurtling towards Scourge in a powerful reverse roundhouse kick. Scourge hadn't anticipated the sudden change in tactics so Silvers boot thumped against his weakly raised forearm, sending him stumbling back under the force of the blow. Silver planted his left foot and rolled his shoulder forward with the momentum of his previous attack as he unclenched his fist, unleashing a bright, blue torrent of ESP energy from his Cyan circle. Scourge only had enough time to cross his arms across his head before the energy wave slammed into him. There was an almighty crash and a huge cloud of dust rose into the air, obscuring the spot where Scourge had just been standing as a network of cracks began to spread out across the floor. The Suppression Squad had gone silent the moment the attack had hit and now stood with bated breath for their leader to emerge, but with no such luck. Silver looked completely drained, but managed weak smirk before beginning the walk back to his team.

"Not bad, not bad at all!"  
Silver stopped in mid stride, that one sentence having completely shattered his sense of calm and sending icy fingers raking the surface of his heart. He turned as if in slow-motion, praying, begging that it wasn't true, but a moment's glance into the dust cloud and at the green hedgehog uncrossing his arms confirmed everything he'd feared. The entire wall behind Scourge had been demolished, except for the small patch he had stood in front of. He rolled his neck slowly, sending out an ensemble of sickening cracks that made many of the anthromorphs cringe.

"You're a heck of a fighter, I'll give you that." Breathed Scourge malevolently. "But…"  
Nobody even saw the movement. One second Scourge was standing on the opposite side of the room to Silver; the next second Silver was doubled over with Scourges left fist buried deep inside his gut.

"…you're not half the fighter I am."  
Silver struggled for breath but couldn't even inhale a mouthful for Scourges fist that just kept pushing harder and harder into his abdomen. Scourge wound back and scored a lethal right hook straight to Silvers temple, but Silver barely had time to even feel the blow before another slammed straight into his left side. And then a right. And then a left. A right. A left. Right. Left. Right. Left. The blows became ever more rapid until Scourges arms were no longer definable shapes, just blurs of black and green as they pounded into Silvers exposed body. Scourge began to work systematically, moving down from the head and onto Silvers front, not leaving a single patch of his skin untouched. The Suppression Squad had worked themselves into a frenzy, cheers wild, screeching and animalistic as they rose in intensity and speed with Scourges blows. At their crashing ensemble Scourge thudded a low kick into Silvers leg, dropping him to one knee. With a swift downward punch Silver hit the floor, but so much force had gone into the punch, Silver rebounded back into the air slightly. Seeing this opportunity, Scourge mimicked Silvers technique of using his punch momentum to launch a kick but, instead on flowing into a roundhouse kick, he fired his foot backwards like a piston and watched as his reverse heel strike crunched into Silvers exposed ribs. Silver was sent hurtling into the dark by the kick as Scourge dusted himself off as if he'd been dealing with no more than an annoying insect. There was a loud crash from where Silver had landed as the Suppression Squad broke into full celebration with Fiona charging out and throwing her arms delightedly around Scourge.

"That's what you get with messing with my man!" she yelled. "Now you're at his mercy!"

"What mercy?" he quipped.  
The Black Ops team stood open mouthed, shocked into a standstill, still trying to comprehend the brutal display of power they had just witnessed

"Silver!" Blaze was the first to break the trance by hurrying off into the dark, summoning flames to search for her fallen friend. She quickly found him lying among huge slabs of buckled concrete with blood streaming profusely from his nose and ears. She tried to help him up, but he batted her paw away as he battled his way back to get upright. The Suppression Squad had gone quiet in pitying amusement as Silver valiantly struggled back to his feet. Once upright, he tried to take a step but faltered and dropped to his knees, raising laughs from the squad. Growling, Silver redoubled his efforts, but Blaze placed her paw on his shoulder to keep him down.

"Silver, you've done enough. You must not get back up." She said. Silver didn't respond, but tried to shrug off her paw and continue getting up. She kept him down and placed her other paw under his chin.

"Silver, look at me." She steered his head towards hers until their eyes met. Her eyes glowed in the light of her flames, solemn and caring as she spoke. "You are my friend and I feel it is touching that you would go to such lengths to defend my honour, but you must stop. As your friend I am responsible in part for your wellbeing and I cannot allow you to harm yourself for my sake any longer." Silver was trying to look away but Blaze kept his gaze focused on her.

"If something were to happen to you, I wouldn't be able to live with the responsibility of knowing it was because of me; So I'm asking you please Silver, don't get back up!" her voice was pleading now, strained, maybe even slightly tearful. Silver tried not to listen but one look into Blazes eyes and his resistance faded. He slumped into her arms as she hefted him up into a supporting position to get him back to the team.

"Tut, tut, tut." Went Scourge. "This ain't over 'til I say it's over. You may be done with me but I'm not done with you!" At that, Scourge charged at Silver, fist wound back in anticipation for the strike. With Blaze keeping Silver upright and Silver in no state to defend himself, all they could do was wait for the blow to come. Scourge launched his fist forward, closing his eyes at the last second, feeling the satisfaction spread through him as his knuckles collided with flesh and bone. When he opened his eyes to see his handiwork, he didn't see Silver and Blaze sprawled on the ground in pain, but Sonic grasping Scourges quivering fist in his outstretched palm.

"But he's not the one you want; is he Scourge?" asked Sonic. "I'm the reason you crossed two dimensions to get here. Why pick at the appetizers when you can have the main course?" Scourge grinned devilishly.

"That's the first smart thing you've said all night, blue." The two hedgehogs maneuvered themselves into the centre off the room, their eyes never leaving each other. Scourge hopped back before taking a boxing stance, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet with his fists raised.

"I hope you're ready blue, 'cause I've gotten a lot stronger since the last time we met."

"That's all very well and good Scourge, but that won't help you-" Sonic was cut off in mid-sentence by a blindingly quick punch by Scourge, but his fist struck nothing but air. "-since I've gotten faster." Sonics voice echoed from a few feet behind Scourge as the green hedgehog turned to see Sonic casually standing, arms folded.

"That's pretty quick blue."

"Well, I am the fastest thing alive."

"Pretty soon you're gonna lose that title."

"You saying you're faster than me?"

"Nope. You're gonna lose that title 'cause pretty soon, you're not gonna be alive!"

"We'll see about that."

The two hedgehogs rushed each other, sending wild punches and kicks flying at impossible speeds. Scourges punches were deflected off by Sonics 360 defence so he fired off a front kick. Sonic caught the foot and twisted it viciously to break it. Scourge jumped and rolled with the motion in mid-air, sending his other foot cartwheeling into Sonics face. Sonic stumbled back Scourge charging forward to tackle him. Sonic fell onto his side and launched a powerful upward kick that caught Scourge just under the chin, launching him onto his back. Sonic leaped forward to stomp on Scourge, but he rolled away, sprung to his feet and sent a right hook straight for Sonics head. Sonic deflected the strike with his forearm before wrapping his arm around Scourges arm, immobilizing it. Scourge fired off a punch with his other arm, but Sonic gave that the same treatment. He tried to launch a knee up and break the grab, but Sonic used his own knee to block it. Scourge then head butted Sonic as hard as he could, feeling the resounding _crack _as their skulls made contact. Grapple broken, Scourge reached into his jacket and pulled out a knife. He kicked Sonic in the chest, flooring him before leaping on him, trying to force the knife into his body. Sonic caught Scourges wrist and held the knife just a few inches above his eye, Scourge straining to close the distance. With Scourges full weight bearing down on him, Sonic knew he wouldn't be able to hold out long. Almost without thinking, Sonic stopped pushing against the knife but shoved it sideways instead so it clattered against the ground next to his head. He pushed Scourge off him with his feet before he sprang up himself, Scourge ready and waiting for him. Scourge made two knife swipes, first back and then forward. As the second swipe came down Sonic burst forward, one forearm raised in defence and the other fist burying itself in Scourges stomach. Scourges arm was hit at the elbow, his knife wielding arm bending around Sonics forearm. Sonic grabbed the hand and began forcing the knife towards Scourges throat. Scourge tried to stop it, but the knife was moving ever closer to his jugular with terrifyingly slow persistence. At that moment, Anti-Tails broke from the ranks of the squad, yelling a battle cry with two steel batons in hand, raised to strike Sonic down. Sonic closed his eyes for the impact but they sprung open again upon hearing the clang of steel on steel. Tails stood with his own batons crossed in an X, holding of his doubles attack back.

"Going somewhere?" he asked. With a feral snarl, Anti-Tails launched into a full-fledged assault on his opponent. The rest of the Suppression Squad broke ranks to join the fray, with Sonics Black Ops team taking their cue and rushing into the ensuing battle to finish off their own double. The power core erupted into a plateau of violent chaos, with yells, cry's, angry shouts and the sounds of weapons being fired drawn, struck and smashed against each other. Scourge delivered a strong knee to Sonics ribs that managed to dislodge the knife, sending it skittering across the floor, before the two broke apart. They eyed each other quietly as mayhem ensued around them.

"I think we need to speed things up blue."

"I think you're right Scourge."

"For that reason, I'm gonna do what I always do when things don't look so nice. I stop playing fair." Scourge clicked his heel against the ground, causing a blade to spring out of the toe of his right shoe.

"Funny, I'd normally say 'Great minds think alike' but to say my mind was like yours…" said Sonic as he tapped his own heel against the ground, a small knife springing out of the toe of his sneaker. "…would be an insult to my intelligence!"  
The two hedgehogs took off as fast as they could in the cramped space, not fast enough to hit top speeds, but fast enough that they left afterimages of themselves as they ran. Wheeling around in an arc they engaged for a few brief seconds, desperately trying to slash each other with their shoe blades before breaking of and coming back into an arc again. They continued this process off run, fight, run, fight all the way across the room, occasionally weaving in between the wild hammer swings of the two Amys or the psychokinetic blasts of the two Silvers, until Scourge pulled something unexpected. Instead of going in for a strike or knife slash, he curled into a ball and spin-dashed into Sonics mid-drift, sending the blue hedgehog crashing through the rooms central pillar which had been providing the rooms illumination. Sonic struggled to his feet to find the battle had gone quiet, everyone's eyes locked onto a bright glow coming from the shattered pillar. Sonic peered himself and found five huge jewels of assorted colours, throbbing with unnatural light. _Chaos Emeralds._

"Well, fuck me sideways…" breathed Scourge. "The fat man had 'em the whole time and I never knew. This has got to be the best job ever! I get to kill you, take the Chaos Emeralds for myself and overturn Robuttnik in the process. The Negative Zone, Earth and Mobius. What a sweet package deal!"  
He made dive for the emeralds but everyone in the room had the exact same idea at that moment, so Scourge was caught right in the middle of the maul for the emeralds. Seeing the distraction Sonic pelted forward and launched a jumping kick that slammed straight into Scourge chest, sending him sailing over the mass of bodies. They both somersaulted in the air before touching down on the ground. Scourge had cleared the maul and landed in open space but Sonic had landed straight in the thick of it and was boxed in.

"I've had enough of you!" yelled Scourge in a fit of rage before charging ahead to finish Sonic off for good. Shouldering his way straight into the maul, Scourge began launching a flurry of fists, each one powered by fury. Sonic kept backing up and dodging until his opportunity arose. Scourge launched a particularly viscous right hook that carried his entire body weight behind it; Sonic easily dodging it and Scourge stumbling under the strength of his own attack. Sonic grabbed his wrist as he place a hand on his shoulder in a tactic he'd practiced a hundred times before, before launching an explosive knee up into Scourges elbow joint. There was sickening crack as his bones gave and his arm twisted to an impossible angle. Scourge screamed, almost as much in rage as in pain, but nobody paid any heed. Sonic spun and aimed a roundhouse kick for Scourges chest, shoe blade out and glinting. Instead of dodging, Scourge stepped into the strike and pinned Sonics shin against his side with his one good arm. With an almighty head-butt, Sonics knee cap shattered under the force of Scourges blow, leaving him screaming in blind agony. This time, everyone on his team turned to look, shocked into stillness as he swayed; still howling. There was sudden flash and Sonic fell silent with a gasp. The blade withdrew from his side as he dropped to the ground, feeling his life draining away through his fingers as Scourge cackled with glee.

"Sonic!" Amy broke away from the maul to protect him but didn't take two steps before her evil counterpart leapt on her, resting the pointed end of her toxic green hammer on Amy's head menacingly. Too late to realize their mistake, the rest of the Black Ops team tried to fight off their attackers but, one by one, were subdued. Tails, Vector, Julie-Su and Rouge were having their wind pipes crushed in a variety of strangle holds and choking techniques while Espio, Cream, Knuckles, Charmy and Blaze were being held captive by the point of a blade. Shadow was standing with a bullet wound in his shoulder and a semi-automatic pistol pressed against his forehead. Silver was hunched over on the ground, clutching his injure side with a huge pile of debris levitating just above his head, anti-Silver ready to drop them on his defenceless hostage at a moment's notice. Sonic watched all this from his helpless position on his side, resigning to himself that _this_ was the end.

"Fiona!" barked Scourge.

"Yeah, Scourgey baby?" she said as she pressed her foot down harder on Blazes head, keeping her throat within centimetres of her knife.

"Razor."  
Without looking up, she tossed a spare knife to him with her free hand. The blade plopped into his palm without him really needing to catch it; the throw had been that good. He strode over to Sonic, murder in his eyes and suffering the only thing on his mind.

"Leave him alone!" shrieked Amy, but anti-Amy yanked back her head and hushed her.

"Shhhhhh! Don't make him angry, otherwise I won't get my toys." She whispered.

"What?"  
But the other Amy didn't seem to have heard her. She was staring transfixedly at Amy's hair in a kind of dazed awe.

"I wanted to be a big girl like you…" she mumbled. "I touched a ring of power so I could be like you and be with him." Her eyes wandered to Scourge, but slowly an insane, psychopathic grin began to spread across her face. "But it went inside my head-space and broke me. Now all I see is toys. Funny toys to play with…" she giggled maniacally. "But my toys never last, they always break." She said sadly before wrenching Amy's head back even further and whispering: "But you don't. You fight good and don't break like all the others. You're going to be my new favourite…"

Amy was too terrified to respond. She wasn't sure if she now feared more for Sonics fate or her own. All the while Scourge had bundled Sonic across the floor to the opposite wall, the blue blur growing weaker and paler with every passing second. Scourge threw him at the base of the wall as he placed the knife tip underneath his chin.

"Stand." He commanded. Sonic was suffering, but was determined not to let Scourge make him squirm.

"Or what?" challenged Sonic, weakly. "You'll kill me? Some use that threat is now."  
Scourge rage was flamed at the insult.

"MOVE!" he barked before delivering a sharp uppercut to Sonics chin. The blow was disorientating and viscious but actually helped Sonic up to his feet. He swayed, weak and bleeding as he leaned against the wall, blade pressed against his throat.

"You're gonna die blue and I'm gonna make your losers watch." purred Scourge. "Any last words?"  
Sonics lips moved but no words came out. He used his head to beckon Scourge closer. Scourge leaned in until his ear was level with Sonics mouth. Sonic suddenly bit down furiously on the ear, tearing the skin and hair with it. Scourge pulled away in shock, giving Sonic enough time to spit out the flesh, blood and fur before grabbing a Chaos Emerald from his pocket and yelling:

"Chaos Control!"  
Scourge dove forward, knife primed to kill but stopped dead in mid-air, frozen in place. Sonic slumped to the ground in relief. But he couldn't stay there long, as he could already feel the strain of sustaining Chaos Control sapping his energy. He would have to work fast. _Free the strongest_, he thought. _They'll free the rest._ Sonic hobbled over to Knuckles, who was pinned to the ground with two silver knuckle spikes digging in under his chin. Sonic moved the spikes away before tipping anti-Knuckles over, leaving Knuckles free. He moved on to Shadow next. He quickly took anti-Shadows gun away and fixed it onto Shadows hand before he hopped over to Blaze. Sonic got rid of Fiona's knife before rolling Blaze onto her back. Though probably not a good idea, Sonic lid Amy out from underneath the deadly hammer and managed to move her into a safe place alongside him. With a wheeze, Sonic collapsed to the ground, pressing his hand to his bleeding side and the Chaos Emeralds to his chest as Chaos Control drained his last dregs of energy. Chaos Control suddenly came to an end, Sonic now out cold with the Suppression Squad and his Black Ops team staring around confusedly. Blaze was the first one to realize what had happened and so dived straight into setting her comrades free. With a swift kick to the stomach she rid herself of Fiona before she severed anti-Julie-Su's whip with a rapid claw slash, releasing Julie-Su from the stranglehold. Knuckles hopped onto his double and started beating at him brutally as Julie-Su fired her EPP straight into her doubles chest. Shadow had already capped his double in the knee and was now doing the same to Creams double. Tails sent an elbow back into the kidney of his double that was choking him with his baton. Anti-Tails flinched but didn't stop so Tails sent another elbow in. Anti-Tails grip weakened and Tails finally broke it with a backwards head-butt into his nose. As soon as he was free, he grabbed a small disc from his tech belt and threw it at anti-Silver. The disc stuck to his back, sending electrical pulses through his body making his mechanical implants flail and spaz out. Silver escaped in the confusion and used his physcokenisis to grab anti-Espio's sword away from Espio's heart and toss it across the room. Espio sprang onto his feet and tossed a sharpened _kama _at anti-Vector, its scythe blade gleaming as it flew. It buried itself into his shoulder, causing his left arm to go limp. Vector reached over his shoulder to grab the other crocodile's snout before pulling him over his shoulder and slamming him into the ground. Vector then grabbed his tail and stared swinging him round his head until he released the tail and sent anti-Vector hurtling straight into anti-Rouge. With a beat of her wings, Rouge was up and delivering a spinning screw kick straight onto the back of anti-Charmy's head. The bee was floored instantly, with Charmy flying away as fast as he could no more than a second later. With all the team free; they formed a protective circle around Sonic as they waited for orders. Tails, spotting the Chaos Emerald in Sonics limp hand, tossed one emerald each to Shadow and Silver. The Suppression Squad were back on their feet and angry as they slowly closed in on the Black Ops team. Scourge strode to the front, still clutching his knife with his arm hanging sickly by his side.

"Nowhere left to run." He breathed with malicious intent.

"No need to take a step." replied Tails. "Shadow! Silver! Now!"  
Both hedgehogs raised their fists in unison and shouted:

"Chaos Control!"  
There was an explosive flash of white light where the two had been standing that sent out crackling waves of static into the air, followed by a pulsing blue orb that faded into nothing to reveal that the Black Ops team had vanished.

* * *

On a hill rise exactly two miles south of the fortress, the Black Ops team appeared in a flash of light. Most of the team was disoriented at first but soon realized that they were free from the power core and a wave of relief spread through them.

"Good plan Tails." Commented Silver, but Tails had a serious expression written into his face as he watched floodlights in the distance split the night sky.

"Don't thank me yet Silver. We're not in danger right now, but that can change pretty quickly and we still have another serious matter on our hands." Tails turned to Sonic who was still unconscious on the ground and rapidly losing blood. "We need to get off this island pronto. G.U.N. should be here by now."

"Look!"  
The team swung round, ready for, but dreading another assault and found Rouge pointing up at the sky. They shifted their gaze upwards towards an incredible sight. The sky was splintering apart like a giant fish bowl, great golden cracks rushing along the face of the heavens before a section would fall off and dissipate into vapour. A huge smile of relief began to spread across Tails's face.

"The cloaking device!" he cried. "The emeralds must have been powering the cloaking device this whole time! It's coming down! Communications should be back online any second! Someone call G.U.N.!"

"I don't think we'll need to Tails. See that?" Knuckles directed them towards a flashing light that was streaking through the air.

"The Harrier! Someone send up a signal flare!"

"On it." Confirmed Blaze. She took a step back, a deep breath and extended her paw. A massive fireball belched from her palm and soared through the sky until it reached its apex, where it exploded in a dazzling golden flash, raining down glowing red embers over where they stood. Obviously having picked up their signal, the harrier jet wheeled around towards them and began its descent into landing. As it came close to the ground, the harriers four engines swiveled downwards until they were facing the earth, letting the harrier hover down onto the hill. As soon as it touched down at least fifteen black-clad G.U.N. soldiers hustled out its doors to form a protective circle around the team. The commanding officer approached Tails.

"State the security pass code and the name of your operation now please." He said.

"Operation Ballistic, pass code 7499353, protocol 42806371B."

"Seems everything checks out. Welcome aboard soldier. We need to leave here ASAP."

"I know. We have a casualty with us." He directed the commander's attention to the bleeding Sonic, who'd regained consciousness during the commotion and was now moaning painfully on the ground. The commander ordered two of his men to bring Sonic aboard. They picked him up, none too gently, and placed him on a stretcher suspended from the supports of the aircraft. The rest of the team was herded on quickly, along with the chaos emeralds, before the soldiers filed back in and the jet began a vertical rise back into the air. Tails stayed upfront near the pilot's navigation gear and from just a quick glance, he could tell that they weren't heading back to Mexico.

"Where are you taking us?!" fumed Tails. "You do realize if we don't get back to the facility soon, my friend is going to bleed to death!"

"We expected as much…" replied the co-pilot. "…so we've set rendezvous on a stronghold we have just off Brazil. Base is flying the oracle out to us. We just have to get there in time."

"How long will it take to get there?"

"If we're lucky, an hour and a half tops, but I can't make promises."  
Tails looked back at Sonic on the stretcher, already hooked up to a blood bag but his face was still pale and his breathing frantic and shallow.

"Hold on Sonic…"he prayed as the harrier thundered off into the darkness.

**Hey guys. Gotta' love a cliff-hanger eh? But in all honesty, I really appreciate all the support I get and I can't thank you guys enough for supporting me as a writer. I hope you enjoy my longest chapter yet, as it's been in production a while. I unfortunately have to give up the whole writing thing for a bit, while I get back to school but I'll do my best to give you guys a little something every now and then. Please rate and comment, 'cause that's what I live for, LoL!**

'**Til next time,  
Chaos Critique**

**P.S. I also started another Sonic story based in Silent Hill for anyone who's into that sort of thing and I need OC's to feature in the story too, so I'm asking if anyone will send me a message or leave a review with their characters description, personality, age and back story. Thanks a lot! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey Guys and Gals! Chaos Critique here, and rockin' the fiction one more time! School's crap, (But when is school ever good? When it's not on, that's when!)but I'm finding a couple of minutes at the end of most days where I can work on the story for you guys. Anyway, let's just cut to the chase and get on with the story, 'cause I'm pretty sure that's what you're here for, not my rambling!**

**P.S. I'm pretty sure this counts as whoring myself out, but I'm gonna do it anyway. If you guys like what I write here, but also have a flavour for horror, (especially of the Silent Hill variety) then check out the Sonic\Silent Hill crossover I've got going. I posted a new chapter not too long ago, so if you'd take a look and see what how you feel, I'd really help me personally. It's the only other story on my profile, so you can't miss it. Thanks again!**

Chapter 6: Bonds and Breakings

_G.U.N. Stronghold, South-American coast, 4am_

Tiles of white light sped past his eyes, leaving glowing after images burned into his vision as he moved in and out of the patches of shadows. The double doors that slammed against his stretcher sounded far away and somehow, unreal. The edges of his vision were beginning to lose colour.

"We're losing him!" yelled Tails, sprinting to try keep up with the G.U.N. soldiers that were carrying Sonic to the operating theatre. Sonics pale and crumpled form lay unmoving on the stretcher that the soldiers carried. The light in his eyes was fading. The soldiers took a sharp left turn that almost threw Sonic off the stretcher and burst into the operating theatre.

"Oracle, are you ready to operate?" asked the leading soldier.

"Nearly. Set him down over there." She motioned to the surgical table with a wave of her hand. The soldiers set him down none too lightly before trotting out of the theatre. Tails skidded into the room no more than a second later, quickly followed by Amy.

"You two are here. Good." Said the oracle. "Tails, go get Knuckles quickly. Amy, give me your arm; Sonic is going to need a blood transfusion if he's going to survive the procedure."

"Tikal, he's dying! Just start already!" yelled Tails.  
The short, orange, echidna girl marched straight up to Tails and stared him down with the hardest, sternest glare she could, shoving her face close to his, prodding him in the chest with every "I" or "you".

"Listen kitsune, you want your friend to live right? Then you do what I say! I'm going to need every ounce of strength I have to do this and then some, and Knuckles is the only one who can help me! So, by you not doing what I say, you are killing your friend! Prove me wrong!"  
Tails stood open mouthed for a few seconds, searching for something to say, but his mouth just flapped up and down soundlessly like a fish out of water.

"WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?!"  
Tails bolted out of the room as fast as he could and charged off down the hallway to find Knuckles. Once he was gone, Tikal took a deep breath and massaged her temples for a few seconds before turning to Amy.

"Hey Amy, could you sit down here and give me your arm please?" Amy hurried over to the chair and sat down as Tikal rummaged in a drawer and drew out a large syringe, swabs and some rubbing alcohol. As Tikal set to work, Amy tried to think of something to say in order to distract herself from the hard knot of anxiety that had formed in her stomach.

"Tikal, are you sure you're okay? You sounded pretty pissed back there."  
Tikal looked back at her with a look of composed normality as she swabbed the vein on Amy's arm and flicked it once or twice to make it rise.

"Me? Nah. I just have to act that way to get stuff done around here. I'm a pacifist, unlike you or Julie or any of the other girls, so people automatically assume I'm a coward or a pushover. If I don't play the bad guy like that, then nobody would listen to me and we'd run out of time. And time is really of the essence right now."  
Tikal slid the syringe steadily into the raised vein on Amy's arm. Amy hissed slightly from the sting and empty feeling that began to fill her arm as Tikal drew out the plunger, taking Amy's blood with it.

"I can understand where you're coming from Tikal, but Sonic is Tails's best friend and he's taking all this really hard. I suppose what I'm trying to ask is; will you go easy on him?"

"Okay." Said Tikal with a shrug. She withdrew the syringe from Amy's arm and handed her a cloth to cover the puncture hole with before going over and transferring the blood into Sonic. Amy tried to stand, but her head swam and she collapsed back into the chair within seconds. Even sitting down it felt like the room was spinning. Seeing the dizzy, queasy expression on Amy's face, Tikal called to her from across the room.

"The dizziness is to be expected. You just lost a lot of blood. Put your head between your legs 'til you feel better, then check the last cabinet on the left next to you. Take the beef jerky and coke inside it. You'll need the sugar and iron."  
She did as Tikal said, feeling the lightness in her head starting to fade as the blood returned. Sitting up slowly, Amy reached into the cabinet and pulled out the food. She chewed it submissively, tasting nothing besides the feeling of rising bile in her throat every time the image of Sonics headstone flashed into her mind. Tails came bursting back in with Knuckles in tow and sent him immediately over to Tikal before plonking down next to Amy and cradling his head in his hands. Amy put her hand on his leg and was about to say something, but stopped herself. Nothing she could say would be enough. She didn't understand like he did. They'd both had Sonic in their life for a long time, but Amy had had some semblance of a life before she'd met him. Tails hadn't. She may be losing a love of a lifetime, but he was losing a partner, a friend, an idol and a brother. She couldn't heal that with words. So she just gave him a look and in a way, that was better than anything else she could do.

"Amy! Tails! Get over here!" called Tikal. The two hurried over, Amy barely keeping her balance over the short distance.

"What is it Tikal?" asked Tails.

"I've got good news and bad news. The good news is the blade didn't puncture his lung. The bad news is that gangrene is beginning to form at the point where the knife point stopped."  
Amy gave a small gasp as her hand went to cover her mouth and the two boys stood silent with shock. Tikal continued on, unfazed.

"I can save him, but it's going to be painful and very risky. I need you two to help me. Tails, get his legs. Amy, his arm. Knuckles, get his other arm, then take hold of my hand; I'm going to need all the energy I can get to do this."  
The three assumed their positions as Tikal closed her eyes to concentrate her energy. As Amy watched Sonics weakening stirrings, she gave a small kiss to the tops of his fingers as she felt the tears try to break through again. She had to be strong. She had to be strong for him.

"Sonic, please hold on…" she prayed.  
Tikal splayed her hand over the wound in Sonics side and began to mutter quietly to herself as a green aura began to shroud her eyes.

"_The servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos." _She chanted, a feeling of electricity building in the room every time she said it.

"_SANA!" _she yelled. The moment she said it, Sonics eyes sprang open and he howled the most unholy cry of unbelievable agony imaginable. Then he began to thrash and convulse wildly, as if trying to throw off an unseen enemy. He even flailed with his broken leg; heedless of the pain compared to what Tikal's healing was doing to him.

"Hold him still!" roared Tikal over Sonics screams. "I just need another thirty seconds!"  
The seconds crawled by slowly as the team fought to keep him still as he bucked and writhed in their grip, almost breaking out with each wild flail, screams never-ceasing, only intensifying with the sound of anguish. But Sonic didn't seem to be tiring and the adrenalin that had been keeping them going was long gone, leaving them fighting on pure willpower.

"I'm almost done! Just a few more seconds!"  
Sonics cries had reached a horrendous climax that echoed and reverberated around the room in correspondence to his pain. As Tikal and the team made the last push to finish, Sonic shot up violently, breaking free of his bonds as his back arched into a sickening upside down U, his screams rising to such a pitch that everyone's hands instinctively clamped over their ears. But, as suddenly as it started, it was over. Sonics eyes closed over as he thumped back down onto the operating table, limp and weak but breathing steadily and rhythmically. Tikal looked drained, as did Knuckles, the signs of her energy manipulation showing through.

"Is he okay?" asked Amy cautiously.

"See for yourself." Responded Tikal tiredly.  
Amy scooted round to check on the wound in Sonics side, but found only a small red line in his fur where the puncture had been. She wanted to cry in relief, but found herself too tired even for that.

"And the gangrene?" queried Tails.

"Gone."

"Can you fix his leg though?" pleaded Amy.  
Tikal looked down at Sonics shattered kneecap with begrudging, but none the less stretched out her back and placed her hand on his leg.

"No point leaving a job half done." She reasoned with a weak smile. "Are you ready to lend a little more Knuckles?"  
Knuckles grabbed hold of her hand.

"Ready when you are Tikal."

"Alright…" she said. "…let's get this over with."

* * *

A few minutes later, Tikal walked into the lobby of the base where the rest of the team was waiting, hands spattered with gore. From the looks on their faces, she could tell that they'd heard everything. She stepped out of the doorway so Tails could wheel the unconscious Sonic out on a trolley bed, followed by Amy and Knuckles.

"For everyone else who needs fixing up, the clinic is now open."  
Shadow and Silver were the first two to get treatment due to the severity of their wounds. Gradually over the next half hour, the whole team was taken care of with each person getting preference in accordance to the degree of harm they'd suffered. Bruises and grazes were left untouched due to their insignificance and as reminder to be more careful next time. By the time she was done, Tikal could barely hold her eyes open; she was so drained. Despite this, Knuckles found her slumped over a desk, trying to focus on some forms.

"Tikal, it's late and you're exhausted. You should really get some sleep." Tikal looked up at him tiredly and groaned slightly as she turned back to the papers.

"Can't." she replied. "I'm supposed to fill out reports of your injuries every time you see me. I've got to get through all of these before 12am tomorrow morning." Knuckles stepped up behind her and placed hand on her shoulder.

"They can wait 'til then. Come on, take a break." Almost without thinking, her head lolled to the side and came to rest against his strong forearm. He felt warm and soft as her eyelids tugged themselves closed.

"Well, a nap would be nice…" she trailed off. Within a few seconds, she was asleep in her chair. Knuckles picked her up gently, as if she weighed nothing, and looked around for a moment until he spotted a clean, empty hospital bed. He peeled back the sheets and laid Tikal down on the mattress, propping her head up as he did so. He tucked the sheets around her and left the room to the sound of her soft snoring, leaving her for a few hours of peace in the realm of dreams.

* * *

_G.U.N. Stronghold, South-American coast, 9am_

"Aaahhh!"  
Sonic sprang up in his bed, sweat rolling down his face as he clutched at the wound in his side. He could feel his fingers inside him, probing the wound as they went ever deeper inside. Suddenly, strong hands clamped onto his shoulders, forcing him back down onto his bed as a voice rose above his cries.

"Sonic, it's alright! Calm down! There's no injury, you're fine!"  
Slowly Sonic opened his eyes to find Tails and Amy watching over him. Unlike what he'd been feeling, there was no wound in his side, only a thin red line.

"Am I… dead?" asked Sonic uncertainly.

"Nope, but you gave it your best shot buddy." replied Tails as he went to open the curtains. Morning sunshine came streaming through the window.

"Oh god…" moaned Sonic. "…natural light!"

"Stop being a wuss." Scolded Amy tiredly.

"What are you guys doing here anyway?" questioned Sonic as he rolled over to get up and realized his kneecap wasn't broken anymore either.

"Tikal told us that you might have been suffering from injury trauma due to the accelerated healing and that we'd best keep an eye on you." Said Amy. "She was right. You were up at every hour, screaming that you could feel yourself being cut open." Amy spoke with a slight shiver in her voice, as if the memory chilled her, but she quickly perked herself back up forcibly. "But you're better now, so we should probably head to breakfast before Columbus gets on our back."

"Good idea."

The three of them headed down to the mess hall. All the rest of the team was already there by the time they arrived, most of them still bruised and filthy from the previous night's Op. Sonic just grabbed a cereal bar, Amy a fruit salad and Tails got some toast and jelly. He spotted Cream as he as leaving the food counter and strolled over her table before sidling up next to her.

"How you holding up after last night?" he asked. Cream didn't respond, just kept poking at her cereal moodily with her spoon. "Cream, are you okay?" He tried to get her to turn her head to look at him, but she just kept looking straight ahead. "Cream, what happened?" he questioned anxiously.

"This happened." She finally turned to face him, revealing the mess her face had become. Her right eye was bruised and swollen shut; the fur around it was bloody and matted from her double scraping her face across the rough concrete. Tails didn't get more than a seconds glance before she whipped her head away again, ashamed.

"I didn't want to show you because I knew you were worried about Mr Sonic and you didn't need anything else to worry about. You probably don't want to look at me now anyway." She whispered sadly, like she didn't believe she was worth Tails's attention. Tails felt his brain boiling thinking that anyone could do such a thing to her, but forced himself to calm down and not prove Cream right about him worrying.

"It's alright Cream. Sonic's fine. I don't need to worry about him anymore. And I think you're the one who doesn't want people to look at you. No matter what happens to your face or any other part of you, it won't affect how I think of you or how pretty I think you are. And if you don't want me to look, all I have to do is close one eye…" he shut his eye in an exaggerated wink. "..and you're back to normal."  
Despite herself, Cream found herself giggling at Tails absurdity. _He always seems to know the right thing to say_, thought Cream. Across the mess hall however, another couple weren't having such a happy reunion.

"Hey babe." Said Knuckles, planting a kiss a Julie-Su's cheek as he sat down next to her. "How'd you sleep?"  
Julie-Su looked up from her eggs with an icy expression, a sneer already forming on her lips.

"How did I sleep?" she asked cynically. "I think the real question, Knuckles the Echidna, is how did you sleep? Or even better, where?"

"Huh?" questioned Knuckles, highly confused.

"Don't play stupid with me!" spat Julie threateningly, slamming her fist down on the table and catching the attention of the rest of the team. "Kind of funny that you decide to visit the infirmary twice in one night, huh? Especially when everyone else is asleep and can't stop you!"

"I was checking in on Tikal!" shouted Knuckles in defence. "I was tired enough after helping her with the healing and she was only borrowing energy from me, so I can only imagine how she felt! I went in to see how she was and basically found her falling asleep at her desk, trying to work, so I told her she'd done enough and convinced her to go to bed." Knuckles copped what he'd said a moment too late; realizing he probably should have chosen his words more carefully.

"You convinced her… to go… to bed?" said Julie-Su, voice dangerously quiet and calm. Her usually purple muzzle was turning a thick scarlet, her eyes becoming narrowed and fiery. "You convinced her… **TO GO TO BED?!" **she screamed. **"WHO'S WAS IT THEN? YOURS OR HERS? YOURS PROBABLY! YOU'D ENJOY THE RUSH, WOULDN'T YOU? GETTING AWAY WITH IT SIX FEET FROM WHERE I WAS SLEEPING?"  
**Julie-Su had gone full physco and no matter how hard Knuckles was trying to keep her quiet, she wasn't listening and everyone was getting in on it.

"Julie, you know that's not what I meant!" Knuckles tried to yell over Julie-Su's window shattering rant. "I swear I didn't do anything! She's just my friend and barely even that! You're my girl! Come on!" He tried to reach forward and placate her, but recoiled when he felt the sharp sting of Julie-Su's palm as it whacked him across the face.

"Don't even try to touch me you slimy, two-timing asshole! If you do, I swear to god, I will-"  
She was cut off in mid-sentence by General Columbus storming into the hall, immediately demanding their attention. Knuckles turned to face the general, but got one final sentence in his ear before Columbus began speaking.

"We'll finish this conversation later!" she hissed.

"Do you know how long I've been awake?!" fumed the General. "I got a call from the Pentagon at two in morning to say that you freaks have disappeared off radar, most likely dead, and then get another call twenty-four hours later to say that a distress signal just arrived from an undocumented Island in the Atlantic with your teams' distress serial number! Do you know what I had to do to cover up that little insertion without people in authority raising their suspicions?! What in the name of god happened on that island?! It better involve the priority target being dead!"

"I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed then." Said Sonic without turning around. "We had to make an abrupt exit while I was busy trying to keep my guts inside me. But we found out his plan if that's any consolation."

"Oh." Harrumphed the General, a tad less annoyed. "What did you manage to find out?"

"It seems Robotnik had his fingers in quite a few pies, with some of them being at the head of the military." Began Sonic, spinning around to face Columbus. "Our suspicions of him trying to incite nuclear warfare have been confirmed, but it's how he's going to do it that's interesting. He's planning to use a G.U.N. agent to publicly assassinate the Russian prime minister at the UN general meeting in New York. That's as much as we know anyway. How he's going to go about doing just that, is something else entirely."  
As Sonic had been speaking, the Generals face had been gradually slackening and whitening. He was now pale and looked like he was about to pass out from shock. He raised a shaking hand and reached inside his jacket to produce a crumpled sheet of paper.

"This arrived this morning." He managed to choke out. Noting the look on his face, Sonic sprang up and snatched the sheet from Columbus. It was a fax with the Presidential seal was across the top and a hastily scrawled note on the body.

"_On the personal request of the President of the United States of America, the NYPD, FBI , CIA and Secret Service have been relieved of all handling of security measures and precautions and this duty be given to Military contractors G.U.N. for the upcoming UN general meeting in New York City. This act is effective immediately."_

Seeing this, Sonic was starting to feel the same panic that was so clearly written on the Generals face. If Robotnik could pull an order from the oval office, who knows who else he had in his pockets? Now it was all set. All that was left was who would do it?

"You have to refuse to offer security!" ordered Sonic as he turned back to the general.

"I can't." replied the general mutely. "It's the Presidents orders and we can't leave the UN without protection. We'll just have to root out the mole!" Columbus turned to leave, but stopped upon seeing Shadow leaning against the door frame, barring his exit.

"I think you guys are overlooking one very obvious thing." He said before standing and making his way to the centre of the room.

"And what's that? We'd all so like to know!" said the general, back to his usual, cynical self.

"Reward." Replied Shadow. The baffled looks of his team mates spurred him to elaborate.

"Think about it. Nobody really knows who Robotnik is here and considering the enormity of what you're about to do, you'd want some reward unless you're suicidal and have fantasies about murdering world leaders. Money is useless since Robotnik is going to turn this place into an ash pile once he gets bored, so all he could do is offer protection. But who in G.U.N. needs protection? They're soldiers and are well paid. Do you see what I'm getting at?"

"Yeah." Said Tails, the gears in his head already ticking over again. "So what you're saying is that it won't be a G.U.N. agent at all? That it's going to be an imposter?"

"Exactly. And tell me this; which thirteen people does Robotnik know for sure are in G.U.N., all have killing capabilities well beyond that of any human and have identical counterparts that all recently became part of his hired hit crew?"  
The sheer gravity of the situation hit them all like a hammer right then and there. Robotnik had pulled a master stroke. His plan would have been perfect, except…

"He didn't count on us surviving the Island, did he?" asked Amy.

"No, he didn't. But since we did, we have a fighting chance. We know how the Squad fights now. We know their strengths and more importantly, their weaknesses. We can get stronger." Declared Sonic, fists clenched in determination.

"So, what now?" Sonic didn't know who said it, but he had an answer.

"Now, we train. Exercise fields in twenty minutes." He said before heading to the door, but stopped before leaving and added: "And I expect to see you all there."

**Hi Guys! Kinda' a filler chapter while I work on plotting the important stuff. I sure hope I don't become like**_** Naruto **_**(100 episodes of filler! Lolz!)! Hope it wasn't too bad and that with Halloween coming up, I can get some work done then. Still accepting OC's for my other story and I really appreciate all the support I've gotten for both of them. If you've got any suggestions or remarks, don't be afraid to say anything. I'm always glad to hear from you and even more glad to keep you happy.**

'**Til next time,  
Chaos Critique**


	7. Chapter 7 prt 1

'**Sup y'all! Now we return to Sonic and Co for their continued fight against Robotnik! Enjoy!**

**Chapter 7: Training**

_G.U.N Training Facility, Mecixo, 6.30am local time_

"Come on Cream." called Amy softly. "We have to get up now." The small rabbit moaned quietly as she rolled out of her bed and sleepily rubbed her eyes.

"Already? I thought we got a lie in on Saturday." Complained Cream.

"Seems not." Responded Amy as she changed into her training gear. "Now hurry up, we can't be late. This is probably the only thing Columbus and Sonic have ever agreed on and I'm not about get in either of their bad books." The two changed in silence until a sudden growling perforated the quiet.

"Sorry." Apologized Cream. "That was my tummy. Do we at least have time for breakfast?" Amy shook her head apologetically as she tossed Cream a cereal bar.

"Just get that into you. It'll keep you going 'til we can get something proper to eat." The girls finished with their gear and locked up their room before setting off for the gym. Several minutes later, they arrived at the grey, concrete behemoth that they called the gym to find it already partly in use. Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, Espio and Silver were already there and busy exercising away at the various training stations. Sonic was jogging intensely on his treadmill; or what had previously been a moving belt that had been invented to test the speed capabilities of Formula 1 rally cars. Knuckles was busy bench-pressing cars in their triplets with Shadow no more than ten feet away splintering boards with flurries of kicks and punches. Espio sat calmly on the ground in front of a dart gun, with his legs crossed and his eyes calmly closed. As he sat, the gun shot darts at him on a random timer and he caught each one precisely between his thumb and forefinger without ever opening his eyes. Finally, Silver was in the sparring chamber; a huge cage covered in hydraulic arms and fists on pistons and bars. Inside, he was desperately trying to dodge his way through a torrent of strikes being fired from all directions and without taking a hit. The machine finally got him when he had to lean back precariously to dodge a flying fist, but also had to dodge a pipe flying towards his legs. He flipped back onto his hands but, half way through the maneuver, a random fist shot out and caught him square in the stomach. He toppled to the ground, winded, as the machine reset itself. Eventually, he painfully forced himself to his feet and went to start the machine again. As he was pressing the 'Reset' key, Amy trotted over and lowered his hand off the control pad.

"Maybe you should take a break Silver? Our proper session hasn't even started yet."

"No, honestly I'm fine." But even as he said it, Amy could see him wincing with every breath and his hand resting consciously over his abdomen. She had to hand it to him, not many people could take a steel bar to the gut and get up afterwards to do it again. But still, she couldn't let him hurt himself for the sake of pride.

"C'mon" she said, tugging at his hand. "Why don't you do some weights with me? I need a spotter anyway." He seemed reluctant to not go back into the sparring cage, but sense soon won out and he went with her to pump iron. Within the next fifteen minutes, everyone on the team had arrived for training and Amy was feeling nicely warm and loose after her third set of squats with the fifteen kilo bar. As she was placing the bar back on the rack, she noticed Rouge making her way in. The bat was sporting nothing but a tiny, pink sports bra, skin-tight, black jogging shorts and matching trainers. _Trust Rouge to be the only person at the gym wearing make-up_, she thought. But, for all her cynicism, Amy had to admit Rouge did look really good and was drawing the eyes of quite a few of the boys. Looking down at herself in her frumpy running vest, leggings, old sneakers and grubby headband; she felt a tad tarnished by just being in the same room as Rouge, but of course she could never tell anyone that. Without warning, General Columbus came marching into the gym. Everyone stopped exercising to face him, but Sonic was the only person who approached him directly.

"What do you want?" he asked flatly. The General didn't respond. He just threw a small watch-like device to Sonic and then proceeded to do the same with everyone else in the room.

"Put them on." He ordered. Everyone complied silently. As soon as they'd slid on to the wrists of all the team members, the watches suddenly tightened as their digital display faces began to count back from 120. A few members tried to yank the things off, but found that they were stuck.

"What the hell's going on?!" barked Shadow. The General just looked back at him icily.

"Call it extra encouragement." He hissed. "These devices are on a timer of 2 hours. In that time you must complete four circuits of the base perimeter, get through the assault course and survive in the sparring cage up to level three. If you fail, this will happen." He produced a slim black box from his jacket and lightly squeezed it. A blinding zap rocketed up the arms of all the mobians as their watches activated. Once the yelling and panting had died down, Sonic managed to haul himself to his feet and glare painfully at the General.

"**The fuck was that?!"** he demanded.

"The encouragement." Replied the General crisply. "Afterwards, you'll get an extra thirty minutes and another circuit to do. The amount of time you spend training is totally up to you."

"This isn't training!" screeched Amy. "This is slavery!"

"Call it what you like hedgehog; what it's really called is efficiency. Now, there's no chance that you'll be slacking off during these sessions. The fate of the world as we know it hangs in the balance and I'm not willing to take any risks." He paused. "Also, you might want to get moving. You've got exactly 115 minutes left."

The team filed out as quickly as they could, silently cursing the General as they left, straight into the burning morning sun and set off on the beginning of their circuit. The perimeter of the base was roughly twelve kilometres but, due to the mobians increased speed, even the slowest of them could cover the distance in less than half the time any G.U.N. soldier could. But, the dusty, dry air and sand made breathing difficult and it only got harder as the humidity increased. Within fifty minutes the entire team had covered the run four times over; the fast staying back to help the rest keep up and supporting them as they tired. Next was the assault course.

The course was a combination of strength, endurance, adaptability and pain testing. To begin there was a basic set of tires set out in a line. Moving through them at speed was always difficult, but face-planting the dirt halfway through certainly didn't help. Then came the wall section. A selection of chest high walls and full barriers were erected in the middle of the path to be vaulted or assist climbed with a partner if they were too high. Everyone got over easily enough, with the flyers staying behind to boost everyone up before fluttering over themselves. This was followed by the sky vaults. These were successions of stairs and platforms, with four foot jumps in between them, built thirty feet in the air to test adaptability and courage. The only way up was a ninety degree rope climb to the top. The weakest of the group struggled to get the physical strength to pull themselves up, but Sonic stayed out front; shouting encouragement and acting like a moral raising wind breaker. The flyers couldn't take the easy route over this time, as the markers attached to the rope only activated within three inches of the watches. Once up, the wind blew with preposterous strength that threatened to hurl them all to the ground and the sunlight made it hard to distinguish the red wood they were running on from the sand below them. Even still, they ploughed on at full speed; knowing that every second wasted brought them closer to pain. The jumps were easy enough at the start, but soon became impossibly wide and even with a run up and throwing their weight into the jump, they were left scrambling for handholds as they smacked into the platform scaffolding. The sky vaults finally ended with a forty foot leap of faith onto an impractically small crash mat directly below. The mat was thick enough not to injure yourself too badly, but it still hurt to land and would definitely leave bruises and marks. Straight afterward there were the cement pipes. The pipes were twenty feet long and became tight and small at the end, forcing the person crawling through them to scrape their shoulders painfully against the walls and on occasion; get stuck. The small ones like Tails, Charmy and Cream didn't have much trouble fitting through, but everyone bigger than them had to really struggle to get past the end. Vector had the worst time of it and he probably wouldn't have made it through if it wasn't for his long arms and Knuckles pushing him from behind. Then came the worst of all; the low spike crawl. A set of nets were suspended three feet off the ground by wooden poles, over a fifteen meter long stretch of sharp, jagged rocks. A person had to cling to the underside of the nets and do an upside down crawl too the other side. If the person hung too low or fell, they'd be cut on the rock face and have to start again. Most of the team got through with only minimal delays and injuries, but Cream froze about halfway across and couldn't get moving again. Amy laboriously crawled back to her and tried to coax her into moving.

"Come on Cream. You've only got a couple of feet left 'til the end." The rabbit just shook her head.

"I can't; my ear's caught." Sure enough her extraneously long ear had snagged on a rock and, with her short reach, she couldn't dislodge it. Amy tried to work the ear loose as gently as she could, but she couldn't work properly while holding onto the net with one hand. Slowly, her body began to sink lower and lower towards the sharpened rocks as her arm grew tired from the constant gripping. Just as she'd finally gotten Creams ear to move but a little, a sudden, sharp pain flared up in her shoulder. Looking around quickly, she spotted the tip of a rock beginning to dig into her flesh. She tried to ignore it and keep helping her friend but her strength was going, they were both being left behind by the team and if she kept going like this, the rock would pierce her shoulder. Still she struggled on until she managed to free Cream from the rock but just as she was bringing her second hand up to get a hold of the net, her grip went. It was so sudden and unexpected she didn't even have time to cry out. The tip of the rock was now surging in, pushing deep into the muscle of her shoulder. For long agonizing seconds she was stuck there, the pain stretching the moments out into minutes until it suddenly receded. Opening her eyes Amy saw Sonic hanging from the net, his strong arms holding her up and away from the rocks.

"Move…" he grunted.

Using her good arm, Amy managed to work in rhythm with Sonic as they climbed horizontally across the net and dropping down safely down on the other side. Once they'd touched down there wasn't even time for thank-you's or apologies; Sonic just belted off, dragging both of them behind him like cooperative ragdolls. There was a mad dash back to the gym to get in a sparring cage and finish before the timer ran out; and with only thirty-five minutes left, it looked like that might be happening for some of them. When the trio arrived at the gym, it turned out they were running in last place as everyone else was already in a cage. Sprinting into the spare cages, they hurriedly keyed in the code into the control panel to bring the machine up to level three combat intensity. The whole process would take thirty minutes; five minutes at level one, ten at level two and fifteen at level three. If you were taken down before progressing to the next stage, the timer would reset itself to the beginning of the level. Seeing that she had a little under thirty-two and a half minutes left, Amy was determined not to let that happen. The huge metal cage chugged to life, sending roboticised fists shooting out at her, but only slowly at first. The first few she dodged of instinct, but she soon detected a pattern in the attacks. Easing herself into the rhythm and trying to move as little as possible, Amy weaved in and out of strike after strike as the machine picked up speed. _This is still the easy part. Keep an eye out Rose,_ she thought to herself. The minutes blurred by until the machine suddenly send a sweeping bar straight for her midriff. Amy managed to duck under it but spotted another piston-driven fist hurtling towards her. She bobbed away from it and managed to find a second of respite to think. _It must have stepped up a level. I'll need to keep my wits about me. _The machine kept up its onslaught; its patterns never remaining consistent for very long. Dodging alone wasn't working anymore, so Amy moved to throwing up the occasional block or counter-strike to stop the faster of the attacks. Wary of her shoulder, she kept a strong lookout for any surprise hits from behind, but none came. Once she'd found her rhythm, the strikes didn't really bother her anymore; she even found a moment to glance over to see how Cream was doing. The little rabbit was desperately throwing herself around the cage for all she was worth, trying to avoid the steel mallets that kept pounding after her again and again.

"You're doing great Cream!" Amy managed to shout. The lapse in concentration only lasted for a second, but it was enough. A sideways strike brushed straight past her shoulder. The hit was only glancing, but it managed to connect right where she'd injured it. The shockwave of pain that ricocheted through Amy's body made her mind fade to white and her rhythm disappear. She couldn't perceive the attacks for the tears flooding her eyes and the pain robbing her of her concentration. Wild shots began slamming into her from all directions, faster then they'd ever hit before. Most of the team had finished now and were crowding around her cage, yelling out instructions to dodge this way and that or shouting out encouragement. It didn't help. Amy could fell the resistance being beaten out of her. If she didn't do something soon, she doubted she'd have the will left to move. Throwing herself around and trying to shirk off the blows that rained down on her; Amy ground through the agony, trying to buy as much time as she could. She didn't have long left, that much she knew, but with every second that passed, her body grew heavier and her muscles more unresponsive. Despite everything she glanced at her watch._ 2:00…_

So little time left. If she could just keep it up a while longer she could beat the clock. With forced energy, Amy hurled herself back to the cage centre, taking every hit that came her way shrugging it off in that knowledge that for every strike she fought through, it would take her closer to salvation. With less than a minute left, Amy was confident she could make it, but it seemed fate was against her. An iron rod caught the back of her knees as another smashed her across the head, putting her on the ground. As she lay there, a final mallet raised itself to deliver the finishing blow. Too beaten, tired and dead to react, Amy could only watch helplessly as the striking arm rose to finish her. Amy braced herself as the arm came down, but a sudden shove from the side pushed her out of the arms reach. There was a clanging of metal on bone, but to Amy's surprise and horror, it wasn't her bone being struck. Sonic lay on the sparring mat where Amy had been only a moment ago. He managed to get her out of danger, but the bar had come down hard on his wrist in the process. Amy glanced from him to her watch momentarily. _0:05… _He'd just saved her in a nick of time; but then again, he always saved her in a nick of time. With training over and seeing that both their friends weren't seriously injured the Mobians began to disperse in ones and twos until only Sonic and Amy were left. He went to leave without saying a word, cradling his injured wrist as he walked, but Amy called after him just as he left.

"Wait!" He paused and looked back at her. "Why did you come back for me? Back at the net and just now? You could have failed because of me. I don't understand?" He turned his back on her and went to leave but stopped and said one sentence.

"First rule of Mobius."

"All Mobians stand together…" came her reply.

"It's that simple Ames. We fight together, we die together. Nobody gets left behind."

After the first day of training, Amy had hoped upon hope that Sonics rescue were more than acts of dutiful binding. She prayed that there was something underneath it all. That maybe, he was finally coming out of the shell he'd surrounded himself with since the first time they'd met and he'd finally acknowledge how he felt for her. But, as the days dragged on, Sonic grew more and more distant and remote to the whole team and her hopes died a little each day. First it was small things. Leaving for the gym slightly earlier than normal and not looking back when someone tripped or offering to help. But the gap grew ever larger as he refused to speak with any of them, spending every moment he had exercising and perfecting his body and speeding off during every exercise without casting a backwards glance to the rest of them. The only times was ever really seen was when he ate or slept, but those moments were seldom and in-between at best. This trend remained solid and at times seemed to worsen until the Saturday night before the UN General meeting. The team had just finished a late training session in the gym and were making their way back to their rooms when Amy suddenly stopped and slapped her forehead_. Doh! My sweater! I left it back in the gym! _She yelled mentally. Quickly making her excuses, she hurried back to the gym before the fading light could turn itself totally dark. A chill had crept into the air as she arrived at the gym, rubbing her arms for warmth. She tried the door but it was locked. She was about to turn back when she spotted an open window around the side. Amy pulled herself up through the open frame and began searching through the darkened gym as soon as her feet touched the ground. She found it quickly but paused when she heard a muffled noise echoing from the back of the gym. Traversing her way through the twilight of the gym, the smell of work and sweat still heavy in the air, she edged closer to the source of the sound. In one last patches of light left in the gym, she glimpsed Sonic doing pull-ups. His every movement was slow, methodical and driven. She watched silently as the minutes crawled by, but Sonics pace never deterred or slowed; he kept on going, grunting in effort every once in a while. Eventually his arms began to falter, but still he pushed on, using all his strength to grind out the remaining exercises; regardless of the tremendous physical discomfort he must have been feeling. She could see his muscles straining under his skin with arteries popping to the surface with each movement. His final pull-up took nearly thirty seconds to complete from the first tug to the last struggle to get his chin over the bar. With it done, he dropped to the ground with a sharp _tack _and reached for a rag to dry the sweat off his face. His arm shook almost violently as he reached for the cloth, his muscles protesting against the trauma he'd put them through.

"I didn't know you could do that." Sonic turned sharply to find Amy standing in the patch of light with him. She'd stepped out and spoken without really thinking and was now kind of regretting it. He shrugged.

"You don't know a lot of things about me." Sonic walked away from her, but she persisted and followed him. He seemed to be sticking to the shadows, as if he was trying to hide something from her but she couldn't figure out what until she saw the small scarlet drops on the marked wooden floor. She suddenly grabbed his wrist, but he spun 'round and threw it off. It was only a glance, but it was more than enough for her to see the small stream of blood that was leaking from his nose.

"Sonic! Did you do that to yourself?!" Amy asked, horrified.

"And if I did?" her responded defensively.

"You can't do that to yourself! You're system can't handle the strain you're putting it under! And for what? So you can pump up? You used to be so good with everyone, but you've barely even spoken to them all week; not even Tails or I. Why are you doing this to yourself?!" She couldn't hold it in any longer. All the pent-up frustration she'd been harbouring for all the time he'd ignored her, not just that week but every time since she'd met him. Like a set of flood gates, once she'd opened up she couldn't stem the flow. She just let it all out.

"Do you think this makes you a better leader?! You abandoned us! You left us behind so you could steal the spotlight and be the hero! I've got news for you; this is our fight too! We're a team, so start acting like a team player!" The whole time Sonic remained deadly silent, not speaking or responding. His coldness just kept making her more and more frustrated until she couldn't take it anymore.

"AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHH!" Amy screamed, yanking violently at her hair. "You make me so angry sometimes! You had everything! You had team who respected you, friends who idolize you and a somewhere you could call home without question! WHY DID YOU PUSH US AWAY?! **WHY?!"**

"I'm not strong enough…"

"What?!" she demanded indignantly. "That's it? You're not strong enough? Is this just a workout to you?! Is that all?!"

"I can't lose…"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, cutting him off. "So it's about winning now! Were you not satisfied with round one with Scourge?! Think you need to pump up for the rematch? If that's all you care about, there's something wrong with yo-" Sonic suddenly grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and shook her violently as he yelled one sentence.

"**I CAN'T LOSE YOU!"**

"Wha-" was as far as Amy got.He suddenly dropped her and stormed angrily over to the doorway. He looked as if he was going to leave but stopped in the passageway and leant heavily against the frame.

"A week ago we went up against the Suppression Squad for the first time in nine months." He spoke simply and almost inaudibly, no trace of any anger in his voice. "When Scourge stabbed me, I wasn't thinking about if I was going to die or not. I didn't really care about that. What scared me more than anything was not knowing what he was going to do to you and the team once I was gone. The feeling almost destroyed me, but I knew that as long as I could breathe, I'd make sure nothing happened. I almost lost you all; I wouldn't have be able to live with that." He paused, then continued. "But now that uncertainty is so much worse. Now, it's not the lives of twelve people that are counting on me, it's more than seven billion. If something were to happen, I wouldn't be able…" he trailed off, fists clenched, voice beginning to choke. "I can't take any chances. I don't like what I'm doing but I can't risk losing you. I'm… I'm not strong enough…"

Amy didn't say anything, she just inched her way closer to him until they were almost touching. She slid an arm tentatively around his back and when he didn't flinch, she slid her other arm around and help him quietly. For many minutes they stayed like this until the room had turned totally black; that's when Amy finally spoke, soft and gentle.

"It's alright. We're a team. We support each other. Stop worrying about being strong. If we work together, you won't need to be."

**Well people, it's been too long. I'd apologise, but I don't think that really cuts it anymore. I've tried to remain consistent with my one chapter a month goal, but circumstance aspires against me. I lost a week and a half last month for writing because I was abroad with my college orchestra. Once I got back, I had to do a bit of overtime at work so I could get money for presents; you know how it is. And finally as one last stick in the arse, end of term exams are coming up. This chapter as going to be a lot longer, but I'm splitting into two parts so I don't keep you guys waiting another week. The second half should be up in a week at most and I'm planning to have a new Chapter for my Silent Hill story by the 23****rd****. Thanks for sticking around so long and as always…**

'**Til next time, **

**Chaos Critique**


	8. Chapter 7 prt 2

'**Sup y'all! Now we return to Sonic and Co for their continued fight against Robotnik! Long one; get comfortable and enjoy!**

Chapter 7: Training  
Part 2  
_G.U.N Training Facility, Mecixo, 6.00am local time, The Next Day_

Sonic rose earlier then his team mates the following morning. He did this most mornings however, so he could work on specific muscle groups that he found lacking. Pulling on his trainers he was about to leave his room when a glimpse of last night entered his mind. That moment when he'd made that awful decision. _Their faces moving to meet each other, their breathe mingling sweetly as their lips drew close. _He slapped himself in the head. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why had he done it? He certainly didn't need any distractions right now and neither did she. All he could do was hope Amy would forget as he was trying to do. Heading down the hallway to get outside, he was stopped by a familiar looking figure.

"It's been a while hedgehog." Uttered General Columbus.

"It has, hasn't it?" replied Sonic. "What do you want?"

"Physical training for today has been cancelled. Your waking time has been extended to 0800 hours and alternate exercise will commence at 0900 hours in the courtyard."

"What's this in aid of?"  
The General shrugged.

"Call it an experiment. Considering you'll be defending the state of our nation in slightly more than twenty four hours, we thought it would be best if you got some mental reinforcement as well as physical."

"How about getting this torture device off, huh? That'd be all the encouragement I need." Sonic said, raising his wrist to display the watch/shock collar latched onto him.

"Very well." The General produced a small grey box and gave it a light squeeze. The watch on Sonics wrist immediately sprung open and clattered to the floor. Sonic could only gawk in astonishment as he inspected his naked wrist for the first time in days.

"When you're teammates awaken, they'll find that their devices have been deactivated and released as well. Is that satisfactory?"

"Um, yeah…" mumbled Sonic, now growing suspicious of the Generals unusually friendly behaviour. "I'm… going to go back to sleep now."  
Getting back to his room as quickly as he could, Sonic sat on his bed, wondering what kind of exercise they had in store for him. _It couldn't be that bad, _he reasoned. They were due to defend the President of Russia tomorrow. G.U.N. couldn't risk injuring them for trainings sake and now without the shock watches; they couldn't even force them to do exercise if they didn't want to. He was too awake at that point to go back to sleep, so he just lay back and thought for the best part of two hours. Thinking wasn't something he did often, either through lack of time or by choice, but a lot had happened lately and almost dying had the annoying tendency to make him reflect on his own mortality. However, that wasn't what was taking preferential treatment in his thought process. It was that moment he and Amy had shared in the gym the night before. It was a flutter, maybe an impulse at best, but if that was it then why was he constantly thinking about it? And more importantly, why had it felt so right? These thoughts constantly bombarded his psyche for as long as he could stand. Rolling off his bed, he glanced at the clock: _7:45am._ Close enough. He should start waking everyone up. He headed to Tails's room first. He let himself in but stubbed his toe on something upon entry.

"Ow! Hey watch where you're stepping!" yelled Knuckles from the floor.

"Sorry Knux." Said Sonic. "I forgot you've been crashing here since the whole Julie-Su/Tikal incident."

"Don't remind me." Complained the echidna, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "What time is it?"  
He glanced over at the wall mounted clock and almost had a heart attack when he saw the time.

"HOLY SHIT!" he immediately began tearing around the room, vigorously shaking Tails and Silver to get them awake. "Wake up idiots! We are so fucking dead!"

Sonic decided to let him flounder for another minute or so before telling him that training was cancelled and that Columbus had removed the shock watches. The look on Knuckles face was hard to read. Sonic wasn't sure if he should be running in fear of getting punched or waiting for Knuckles to get over the joy of a morning off. In the end joy won out and the echidna happily rubbed his naked wrist for the first time in a week. The four of them decided to split up and wake the others. Tails would wake Cream and Amy, Silver would wake Blaze and Rouge, Knuckles would wake the Chaotix and Sonic would wake Julie-Su. Sonic wasn't happy to be waking the moodiest of the four girls, especially since she was still on break-up butt hurt, but he'd agree to anything right now to not have to talk to Amy.  
Ten minutes later everyone was up and tucking into their first proper breakfast in days. The kitchen had made a special effort that day, so when the team had arrived into the canteen, they found a huge spread of delicious foods. Standard bacon, eggs, toast and cereal were available, but omelettes, quiches, waffles, pancakes and pastries had been brought in. They tore in and ate for a good forty minutes before anyone even thought about stopping. Sonic was on his third helping of bacon and fifth waffle before he figured he might have overdone it a little. When everyone had finished, Sonic told them about the exercise in the courtyard. Spirits had already been high and light, only improved by adding a good feed in on top, so nobody thought much of it. They walked to the courtyard as a group, Sonic always staying on the opposite side of the crowd to Amy. When they arrived though, they found something they hadn't expected. The patch of gritty sand that had usually served as the courtyard had been completely covered over by soft, lush grass. Small shrubs and saplings grew seemingly unaffected by the boiling morning sun as a rock fountain added of a gentle, soothing background gurgle. When they thought that it couldn't get much weirder, an elderly, eastern gentleman in a kimono and holding a cane came shuffling of from between the shrubs.

"Ah, there is nothing like a stroll among the fragrances of mother earth." He sighed before turning towards the mobians. "Greetings children! You're earlier than I expected. No matter. The wheel of time turns ever forward. Let us not waste its revolutions."  
He snapped his fingers and two other eastern helpers came out of the shrubs with fourteen pillows and left thirteen of them in a line across the ground with one pillow detached, but facing the others. He sat down on the detached pillow.

"Before we begin, I would as you all to come closer so that I might see you better."  
They complied, moving within arm's length of him, but he still beckoned them closer. As soon as stepped closer, he reached forward and probed their faces with his fingers, feeling every crevice and detail.

"I apologise if my behaviour seems strange to you, but I now see through my hands. I lost my eyesight many years ago." He said before letting them return to their pillows. He proceeded to fold his legs into his lap and place his hands on his thighs. "Please copy my pose. Half-Lotus position for now. Try to be comfortable while you sit, but do not slouch."

Espio, Blaze and Silver all took to the position quickly, they all being used to meditating for longs periods of time. The others all took a bit longer. Once they were settled, the man began to speak.

"My name is Akira, but you need only call me Sensei. I will be training you today in the arts of spiritual unity. There are three kinds of unity that we will cover today. Self, group and universal. _Guónèi hépíng _or Self-unity is the skill of being at peace in one's own mind and soul. It allows for greater concentration and physical prowess. _Wài hépíng _or Group unity is the skill of being in total sync with the hearts and minds of all those around you and trusting each other completely. But universal unity is something very different indeed…"

"You've got to be kidding me." Shadow mumbled into Sonics ear. "We're supposed to take him seriously?"

"_Tōngyòng liánjiē_…" Akira continued. "…is when we train the mind to dissolve the illusion of individuality in nature. We are all connected by one, universal source of life and energy. If we can open the barriers of our mind to such a force, then we become capable of incredible physical feats and abilities bordering on the supernatural. It is nearly impossible to achieve, but I believe there is potential for greatness here."  
A small chuckle escaped the end of the line, upon which Akira's head whipped towards the source of the noise.

"Is there something you find amusing youngling?" asked Akira.

"Yeah." Answered Knuckles. "I don't know where you got this idea that mental quiet and meditation will help you in a fight. I'm the best fighter here, no question. No matter how much you meditated, you couldn't beat me and you never will."

"Let us put that to the test." Said Akira as he shakily got to his feet. Knuckles looked about fit to burst out laughing.

"Alright." Knuckles agreed. "But don't say I didn't warn you."  
Knuckles walked out onto the grassy verge, stretching his mighty muscles as he went, as Akira shuffled unsteadily to the same space.

"Before we begin youngling, I have a question. Have you had any discord in your life lately?"

"No." answered Knuckles confidently.

"Really?" asked Akira, smiling. "Because your soul speaks differently. It says you are in conflict with a loved one."  
The look of shock literally rippled across Knuckles face. But Akira continued further.

"But your soul says more. It says that you feel inhibited and so you seek solace in another woman."

"Shut up!" yelled Knuckles.

"It says that though you deny accusations of love as false, they are true, at least in part."

"I said SHUT UP!"

"In fact, it says that you feel the need for two partners to make up for a lacking in… other areas." He said, wiggling his pinkie finger at Knuckles tauntingly. Knuckles totally lost it, sprinting as fast as he could at the old man, fists raised to strike.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" he screamed as he swung wildly at Akira. The punch was off by only centimetres as Akira stepped back. Knuckles kept swinging and punching, but Akira always drifted out of the way by no more than a hairs breadth. Akiras cane suddenly shot out and rapped viscously across Knuckles face. The echidna struck back fast and hard, but Akira batted the strike away and slapped him in the neck with his cane. On impulse Knuckles reached up to the mark on his neck, leaving himself exposed. Akira jabbed him in the stomach before whacking him to the ground through his head and pinning him there with the cane tip on the back of him neck. The team was astounded. The fight had taken less than ten seconds but Akira had totally destroyed Knuckles and had barley even moved in that time. Akira laughed lightly before letting Knuckles back to his feet.

"You remind me of myself in my youth." He remarked. "You are skilled, but your hubris and anger render your skill useless and prevent you from thinking clearly. You may sit down."  
Knuckles proceeded to moodily return to his pillow, where Julie-Su was sitting near, smiling. As soon as he sat down, she put her hand on his and began to talk to him for the first time in ages. He smiled. Maybe getting your butt kicked wasn't all that bad.

"What our friend here has displayed for us is the point of _Guónèi hépíng_. That even if meditation does not increase our physical strength, it allows our minds to remain clear and a calm mind will always triumph over one clouded by rage; especially in battle. We shall now try and calm our spirits. Imagine your emotions like waves, all surging and crashing together inside the ocean of your souls. Only when the waters grow still will you achieve unity."

The group settled themselves quietly and focused on calming themselves. Breathing slowed and movements stopped all around as everything went quiet. While it seemed everyone else was doing fine, Sonic just couldn't concentrate. He would always pick up a noise, his foot would start jiggling or the memory he was trying to forget would bubble up to the surface.

"You seem uneasy youngling. Is something the matter?"  
Sonic opened his eyes to find Akira smiling kindly at him from where he was seated.

"Just trouble concentrating Sensei. I'm finding it hard make my ocean still." Akira shook his head.

"Oh youngling, forcing the ocean of your soul to still by willing it will have the same effect as willing the real oceans to be still. If your emotions are too strong to tame, then simply embrace them. I never said you had to be master of your emotions, I merely said you needed them to stop fighting."

As much as he didn't want to, Sonic did as Akira asked and let loose his memory. Suddenly he was back in the gym, the burn of exercise still in his shoulders, the warmth of her body against his and the feeling of everything else melting away to leave nothing but the two of them, becoming one with one another. Sonic drifted sleepily through that memory, spending blissful seconds knowing she was wrapped in him and him in her. It seemed endless and perfect.

"And so, the soul comes full circle."  
Sonics eyes suddenly flew open to find all the others staring at him. The sun was suddenly much higher in the sky and his legs were totally numb.

"Man, I didn't know a few seconds of meditation would kill my legs." Grumbled Sonic, trying to work feeling back into his lower half. Akira chuckled quietly.

"My boy, you have been in a trance for nearly an hour. We have been trying to wake you for almost half that time!"

"What?!" blurted Sonic. _Man, that meditation is some strong stuff, _he thought. If only he could trip out on some memory he wasn't trying to ignore. Then again, it didn't seem to be poking at his brain now. It was just sort of sitting there, all quiet. Akira had been right. Embracing had made it go quiet.

"Now younglings, we begin the second stage. I will pick one of you at random and tell you a basic shape. Without speaking, moving or opening your eyes, you will attempt to guide your teammates into creating that shape in some way. This will require as much effort on the part of the receivers as the sender. Try to keep your minds open and your thoughts empty. Let your body guide you, but only do as you feel, not as you think. This is often the resonant waves of another soul trying to contact us, but too frequently they are drowned in our own worries and self-obsessions. You." He pointed to Shadow. "You shall be the sender. Come closer."  
Shadow grumbled slightly before sullenly getting to his feet and standing next to Akira. Akira whispered something to him before he closed his eyes and scowled silently into the distance. The rest of the team were now on their feet, ambling slowly around to find a spot that felt right to stop in. Not much time had passed before they had all found a place that felt somehow significant and had stopped there. As far as Sonic could see, there didn't really seem to be much shape or order to it.

"Now tell me youngling, what was it that you saw?" asked Akira.

"A cross." Replied Shadow with open eyes. "But I don't see any cross here old man."

"That is because you look, but do not see. Might I suggest you change your perspective?" smirked Akira, waving Shadow off. The hedgehog didn't know what the old man was planning, but he began to walk around the group, searching for some kind of pattern. A minute or two of searching later had led to no success, so Shadow stopped, folded his arms and stated adamantly:

"There's no cross. I've looked and there's nothing there."  
Akira, however, just smiled in reply.

"Please climb the cherry blossom behind you." He requested.

"What?" asked Shadow, totally thrown.

"Please climb the cherry blossom behind you." Repeated Akira calmly. "Do this and you will have your answer."  
Begrudgingly, Shadow climbed the reedy and unsteady cherry blossom to its top where an incredible sight met his eyes. On the ground in front of him, the stances of his teammates had dissolved to clearly spell out one word: _Cross_. Shadow jumped from the tree and landed in a shallow crouch next to Akira.

"That was a fluke old man. We're doing this again." He commanded.

"Very well young one. Your search will not discover any new answers though."  
Shadow growled. Akira gave him another shape. Shadow closed his eyes and the group reshaped itself. Shadow opened his eyes and saw to his disgust that the group had in fact formed into the shape he'd been thinking of.

"Again!" he demanded. This process repeated itself endlessly, with Shadow growing more and more frustrated with each successful attempt, even as the shapes grew rapidly in complexity.

"Enough!" Shadow yelled. He stormed into the centre of the grass and planted himself there.

"Have you given up youngling?" called Akira.

"No." came Shadows reply. "You're tricks are bogus! I don't know how you're pulling it off, but I'm not falling for it this time. We're gonna mix things up this time. I'm gonna stay out here, while someone else sends your 'messages'." _Heh, _thought Shadow. _Let's see him get me this time._

"If you insist." Said Akira wearily. He called over Sonic to where he was sitting and told him the shape. The group began to rearrange themselves as Sonic concentrated; all except for Shadow, who refused to budge from his spot on the grass. Once everyone had come to a stop, Shadow opened his eyes and laughed at the petty effort he saw. The group was scattered carelessly about the grass, no clear indication of shape anywhere.

"Ha!" Shadow guffawed. "I told you this was bogus. All I had to do was remove one link in the chain and the whole thing falls apart. What have you got to say to that old man?"

"Step out for a moment please youngling," requested Akira. "and ascend the cherry blossom again."  
Shadow complied happily, still thinking himself safe in his victory. He got to the top of the tree where he waited for Sonic to tell him the shape.

"Well Sonic?" said Shadow smugly. "What 'shape' am I supposed to be seeing?"

"You Shadow. You _are_ the shape."  
Shadow was totally thrown. He couldn't see anything the least bit like him. _Maybe it's a word? _He supposed. He looked for letters, but no matter what way he looked at it, he couldn't find himself.

"There's nothing here old man. Just like I knew all along."

"That is because you are not seeing yourself as you truly are." Replied Akira calmly. "The soul does not lie." Almost as if signalled by the sentence, whatever had been stopping Shadow from finding the word fell away. As clear as day, one word sat staring him in the face: _Fool. _Shadow immediately dropped to the ground and growled with murder, or at the very least severe bodily harm, in his eyes. He disappeared momentarily if a burst of Chaos control, but was back seconds later with a cocked and loaded pistol that he was levelling at Akira.

"I'm the Ultimate Life form. Nobody dares insult me like that." He said. Akira did not respond. Angered further by the man's silence, Shadow marched forward and pressed the barrel against his forehead, letting him feel the cold steel that would be his death. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't end your pitiful existence right now."

Akira did not grovel. He did not plead. He did not even flinch. He spoke quietly and simply.

"Because you do not want to."  
Of all the replies he'd been expecting, that was not one of them. For the third time in less than five minutes, Shadow had been shocked into silence. He quickly regained his composure though and pressed against the barrel harder.

"You're lying!" he accused.

"I am not lying young one; and neither is your soul." It was like the old man was staring straight through Shadow and seeing his thoughts. Shadow was trying to hide it, but every time Akira spoke, his defence crumbled a little more. "You blame those who created you. At first you thought it was part of who you were; being bred as a weapon. Then, you thought it was right. There was so much pain, suffering and hate in the world that you thought that the only way to wipe the slate clean was to destroy the source; humans." Akira smiled gently. "But one little girl convinced you otherwise." The gun dropped from Shadows grip. Shadow had never dropped a gun before.

"_Maria…_"

"After that, you thought it was even worse than before. You thought you had developed a taste for it. No matter where you went, pain and death would always ensue for those around you. You were a monster in the eyes of the world and your own." Akira looked at Shadow caringly through his unseeing eyes. "But it was not so friend. You merely protected yourself from those who would use you for diabolical schemes beyond your comprehension and you tried to protect those around you too. And now?" Shadow met Akira's gaze.

"You are sick of it. But you act as you do because of the corporation that controls you and so that you meet the expectations of those you live with. You are saddened that you cannot laugh openly, you cannot seem like a friend or that talk dies when you enter a room; but still you distance yourself. You do not allow yourself to become attached because of the risks you take each day. You fear the hurt you may feel and the hurt you would inflict upon your passing."  
Tears. _Crying. _Shadow was actually crying. Fat droplets of salty water were rolling down his cheeks and disappearing into his fur as he fought hard to stem the flow, but to no avail.

"Do not fear it my boy!" cried Akira while clutching Shadows shoulder. "Life has its sorrows, but they do not come without its joys! They are two sides of the same coin! This hurt is a recognition of love; something that you have much of which to share!" The rant seemed to have tired the small man out. He leaned heavily forward and whispered in Shadows ear. "Always remember my boy; 'It is better to have loved and lost, then to have never loved at all.'"

Shadow had been through a lot of shit. Everyone had known that. But nobody had really known what he felt or how he had burdened it alone. In the months that they'd worked for G.U.N. they'd seen him set fire to military bases, blow terrorist hives and gun down countless people without every flinching. He had been Shadow as they'd always known him. But in only a few sentences, a small eastern man had torn apart the illusion of the cold, psychotic, predatorial mercenary that he'd been casting to reveal how Shadow truly was. It was more than any of them could bear to see. Tears flowed freely from everyone now, even the emotional restrained like Espio and Blaze; who could not hide their empathy even as they wiped furiously at their ever reddening eyes. It took some minutes for the sobbing of many; Shadow in particular, to subside. Sonic broke off and crouched down next to the black hedgehog, still refusing to look up and meet the gaze of his peers.

"Hey buddy." He said. "It's alright. You can look now if you want."  
Shadow sat up onto his haunches and sniffed, embarrassed for once.

"I swear if you tell anyone about this..." he said without conviction. "…I will gut you all in your sleep."  
Sonic chuckled.

"Dude, we're the only thirteen beings of our race, if you don't count our doubles, on an alien planet in another dimension, with no communications with the outside world and currently being classified as a level three security secret. Who do you think we're going to tell?"

Shadow smiled. "Shut up."

"The soul does not lie." Whispered Akira softly. "Now, are we ready to begin the final step?"  
Before anyone could answer Shadow stood up and bowed deeply.

"_Hai, _Sensei." He replied. Akira smiled.

"Very well." He clapped his hands and the two assistants that had brought out the seating pillows earlier ran out with fourteen candles. They proceeded to lay and light each candle opposite a seating pillow before disappearing into the bushes once again.

"Our spirits have been harmonised in a way far greater than I had previously expected." Remarked Akira. "You have come closer together through a moment of shared sorrow and elation and so, this next phase will come that much easier."  
The group returned to their individual pillows and settled into the half-locust position while they waited for Akira to explain the exercise.

"The task is simple younglings. All you must do is snuff out the candle with your mind. You cannot influence anything else to complete the task for you. You may not sway the elements, each other or the animals around you in order to complete this challenge. You must _will_ the candle to go out. Remember, we are connected by the same energy. Simply tap into it and communicate with the flame. It will respond."

In demonstration, the old man sat in front of the candle and quietly closed his eyes. He floated into a trance that continued for minutes on end until, without warning, the candle suddenly went out. No smoke, no sound. The flame just suddenly stopped burning. It was incredible. Akira slowly came to, seeming groggy and tired from his briefest of brushes with the energy.  
"And now it is your turn." He said.

The group began to concentrate quietly, willing the flame to go out, trying to the feel the energy as Akira had asked. Whispers began to spread slowly as individuals tried to physically ask the flame to go out. Blaze sat bored, extinguishing and reigniting the wick repeatedly easily, almost mocking the others as they struggled to even budge the flame. Akira somehow sensed this and approached her.

"Your skill is admirable young one, but you have not done what I asked." He said.

"I'm sorry Sensei?" she asked, confused. "I've extinguished the flame multiple times."

"Yes, but you are overpowering the elements with your mental ability, not manipulating the energy as I asked. Your skill is hard wired in the primal section of your brain. It is not a cognitive process; it is a reflexive instinct that you have gained control over. What I'm asking you to do is use the higher part of your brain to break through its limited perception of the world and touch the energy. It may be difficult for you to comprehend but, if you achieve this, it will only further your current abilities."

"_Hai_, Sensei." She said. She continued to focus on the candle but, this time, the flame did not respond as she put all her concentration on it.

Sonic was having about as much luck as the rest of the group, his candle remaining stubbornly alight. He couldn't seem to concentrate on the candle. Something else always broke his focus.  
_Embrace it boy. Let go._  
Akiras words rung loudly in his mind. Maybe that was it. Maybe he had to go to that same place again, but distance himself from the memory. It would be his passage, but not his destination. Sonic brought himself back to the previous night, the rest of the world melting away with every second. Every sensation felt so real and immediate but, slowly, he forced himself to strip away each feeling and emotion until he was left in nothing but a dark, quiet place. _The Black Room. _That's what he'd call it. The space seemed infinite and empty, but Sonic could sense something lurking out there. It was then that he saw it. No more than a flashing outline, like the shape of light you see when you blink. But he didn't blink. The shape continued to flicker, faster and faster until it remained in the silvery outline of a shape. A lit candle. Was this the test?

"_Go out,"_ he thought. The flame disappeared immediately. What next? Surely it wasn't that simply. _"Come back,"_ he thought. The candle was relit instantly. That couldn't be all. Sonic approached the candle.

The closer he came, the more the item became transparent until it was almost invisible except for the faintest of its silver edges. He ran his hand through the flame and watched as it crawled slowly up to engulf his arm. It burned without heat. Just as it was reaching his shoulder, he raised his arm, making the flame rush to the tip of his fingers. Slowly, his hand began to move, the flames travelling away from his hand but still following the same path. The stream of white fire arced and jumped across the ceiling of the black room, leaving wispy trails in its wake as it soared for a space. But as soon as it had started, it was over. Thousands of tiny Will-o'-Wisps surrounded him; piercing the murkiness like stars against the eternal black of night. The surface of the black room had been transformed; from a dark abyss to a scene so surreal that Sonic felt like he was floating in the middle of space. Finally, the last drop of flame floated down into his hand and he crushed the tiny star that rested in his palm. The rest of the room suddenly went black again, like the light had gone out in response to the death of their kin. But that was not it. Sonic felt himself floating up through his own mind again, going back to reality and closing the door to the black room behind him. Waking, he found his team staring at him again, but now in a look of slack jawed horror instead of fascination. His eyes wandered to his own body and found it covered in scorch marks, most heavily on his arms, but he was not burned at all. Looking around, the entirety of the grass was covered in scorched lines of flame, with some of the still smouldering. Even Akira seemed to be lost for words for once.

"Sixty years…" was all he could manage. "Sixty years I spent training… and all to snuff out a candle…"  
He quickly righted himself once he could feel peoples stares and cleared his throat.

"That will be all for today, younglings." He announced. "May the skills you have learned aid you in your quests and travels."  
The team rose to go, but as they were leaving Akira called after them.

"A final warning younglings!" he called. "The energy of this universe connects all things; good and bad. While this skill may bring great power, it comes with its risks! Be wary in your use!"

"What did he say?" asked Sonic.

"Not sure." Replied Tails. "Probably more good wishes."  
They both shrugged it off.

"Be wary…" whispered Akira. "You do not know what lurks in the void. Things long since forgotten by time, but they have not forgotten us."

**Hey guys! Happy Holidays to you all! I hoped to get this up yesterday, but things keep getting in the way during this busy time of year. Anyway, this is the final "faffing about" chapter and now we head straight to New York for the UN General Council. Let's see how things play out, shall we? Thanks for all the support, I appreciate every view!  
'Til next time,  
Chaos Critique**


	9. Chapter 8

**Hey Guys and Gals, I'm back! After quite a while engaged with a hundred or so other commitments I won't bore you with; I'm finally back to bring you what I'd like to call the explosive midway point in this story. That's not to say that there's gonna be just another seven chapters and then I'll phone it in, but I feel this is probably going to be the most important chapter in this story until the finale. Also, I wanted to say thanks to all my readers who read both this as my other Sonic fic' because you guys are awesome and you all recently pushed me over the 2K views mark! Thank you so much for your unwavering support since the start and every comment I see or like I receive leaves me glowing with pride! And now, on with the show!**

**Chapter 8: Summoning**

_New York City, UN Headquarters, 3.35pm, Operation Red Guardian is online_

The sections of the light cream wall blurred together as Sonic sped past them. The restrictive hallways of the UN building were slowing him considerably, but at least the carpets were giving him some extra grip. This would be his tenth security sweep in the last eight minutes. As he completed his final circuit of the hallways; he gave an experimental tug on the doors leading into the general assembly room. They didn't budge an inch.  
_Good; things are still secure. No problems yet. _He thought to himself. Things had been tense the previous night as they'd flown to New York. Not knowing if tomorrow would eventually lead to nuclear warfare; it wasn't something you ever had to consider much. That tension still hung heavily in the air like a bad smell. Scourge and the squad could strike at any given moment. The team had to keep searching to find them and keep the RPM (Russian Prime Minister) safe because by the time they made themselves known, it would probably be too late. Sonic flicked on his radio and signalled Tails.

"Momma Bird, this is Blue Blur confirming that the search result remains negative. Momma Bird, do you read? Over."  
There was only silence on the radio followed by an exasperated sigh.

"Momma Bird confirming," said Tails dully. "Momma Bird also votes that we never let you pick the goddam code names again. Over"  
Sonic chuckled to himself. It had been his turn to pick code name for this mission, so after his depressive period over the past week; he decided he needed to bounce back a little. Since he had a spare minute he decided to take advantage of the names he'd given everyone.

"Blue Blur calling Baby Bear. Are things clear on your end? Over."  
Silence.

"Baby Bear, do you read?"

"Fuck off." Came Shadows reply. Sonic suddenly burst out laughing, absolutely loving Shadows reaction. Man, since the incident with Akira he'd certainly been less moody, but never any less serious. Plus, one epiphany wasn't going to suddenly make Shadow have a sense of humour.

"Sonic, this is ridiculous." Said Tails. "Can we just use the code name for our last op? Over."

"Sure, whatever man." He chuckled, wiping his eyes. "I've had my fun. Over."  
Tails opened up a multi-channel broadcast and sent the message to all the team.

"Attention team. Code names have been neutralized. Revert to your codename from operation Overwatch. Over."  
There came a universal sigh of relief as everyone got to shift their crappy code names for something respectable. Now that the radio silence caused by the code name problem was over; Tails began a check of the current condition of all the team members.

"Eye in the sky, how do you read? Over." he signalled.

"All good hun." Rouge replied from her vantage point hundreds of meters above the crowds around the UN building. "No suspicious activity detected from up here. Over."

"Stalker, do you copy? Over." asked Tails.

"Copying loud and clear!" Shouted Espio over the roaring of the political protesters. "Things are all good in the crowds at ground level! If anything surfaces, I'll report! Over!"

"Striker, have you noticed anything? Over."

"Nothing to report." Answered Shadow, speaking into the microphone built onto the scope of hisBarrett M107 . "If I see anything, I'll confirm it with Stalker before taking the shot. Over"

"Copy that. Firewall, how are things with you? Over."

"No break-ins detected Operator." Responded Cream, eyes hurtling over the spinning lines of code on her laptop screen. "I'll keep searching though, and keep you posted if anything happens. Over."

"Good. Tunneller, what's your status? Over."

"This is the third sweep we've made of the subterranean levels and everything's still clean." Signalled Knuckles. "I'll do another sweep in five minutes, Rodger that? Over."

"Rodger that. Over." Answered Tails before checking in with the rest of the team. Silver was on the roof using his weak telepathy to try and sense any hostile thoughts or intentions from the crowd; however the amassed thoughts of the gathering were acting like loud static, keeping the essential thoughts buried under a sea of white noise. Amy was running checks of the guard rota every three minutes to make sure nobody had gone missing and were exactly where they were supposed to be. Not a single person had been found to be out of place. Vector was off on the East river behind the UN Plaza, making sure that they were protected against any attacks from the water as well as the ground. As for ground attacks, Julie-Su, Blaze and Charmy had been posted on the roofs of 44th, 45th and 46th street leading onto 1st Avenue with M16's and orders to fire at the first sight of trouble. Things were going well. Everything was going according to plan. Maybe the squad had lost their confidence once they'd seen what they were up against. Maybe they hadn't yet totally healed from the fight. Maybe, just maybe… they could avoid bloodshed just this once?

Private Jameson had always wanted to serve his country ever since his Grandfather had told him about how so many soldiers had died for his freedom during WWII. At age sixteen he had left school, his home and his family to try and enlist. Lying to say he was seventeen and turning eighteen in less than three months had gotten him in without question. He hadn't expected training to be easy, but turning himself into a soldier was the most painful thing he'd ever experienced. Endless days of searing heat from sunrise to sunset. Countless nights in the Arizona desert with temperatures close to zero degrees Celsius. Muscles screaming and bones on the verge of snapping. It had been so much that a few times he considered quitting and going AWOL. But he'd come on the other side and made it out the other side just a week before his eighteenth birthday. He'd been positioned in Iran, excited that he could finally serve and protect the same way his grandfather had… until he was shot in the stomach by a sniper only five days later. The reality of war had hit him hard that day and every day for the next six months in rehab, trying to recover from his injuries. But by the time he was back to full fighting strength; the General refused to grant his request to return to the front line; even going on to tell him; "You're a risk to not only yourself, but to every person around you! We lost two good men hauling your sorry ass back into that bunker!" Jameson had been discharged for his carelessness after that, but he refused to stay down. He applied every single PMC from home to North China to find a company that would take him; and that's when G.U.N. had found him. Now here he was, defending the President of the United States up close; literally defending the state of his nation. It was more than any of his friends in his ex-company could boast. Secretly though, he was hoping something would go wrong; just so he could leap into action, kill some terrorists and maybe take a bullet for the President! He'd be honoured as a hero!  
A sudden coughing nearby brought him out of his daydream and snapped him to attention. Through his grey visor he could see a strange company of twelve anthromorphic animals. This didn't surprise him though, as he'd been warned of G.U.N.'s secret weapon that would be accompanying them.

"Identify yourselves and state your business!" he barked, just like he'd practiced.

"Company Thirteen," replied the blue hedgehog at the front of the group, who appeared to be the leader. "Here doing spot checks on the General Assembly. Let us past."

"Passcode?"

"Access code 3D182013C. Let us past."  
Jameson ran the code through his head twice. It was spot on, but the hedgehog seemed awful insistent to get moving.

"What's the rush hedgehog?" he asked. "Got plans?"

"More than you know buddy." Replied the hedgehog coolly before flashing a sharped toothed grin. That's when something sparked in Jameson's head. Weren't there _thirteen_ animals in Company Thirteen? And looking at him now, the hedgehog looked a little… _green._ That's when the alarm bells went off inside Jameson's head. He was shouting before he'd even reached his radio.

"CODE BLACK! REPEAT, CODE BLACK! WARN COMPANY THIR-"  
But before he could say another word; something wrapped around his throat and began to squeeze viscously. As the pressure rocketed up inside his skull, Jameson saw that not one animal had moved. As his eyes drifted back into his head, he spotted the chameleon on the ceiling; tongue out and strangling the life out of him. The imposters strolled by as spittle flew from his lips in his desperate attempts to shout a warning to his comrades. With darkness about to swallow his mind and his vision, Jameson slapped the communicator on his wrist; sending out the distress signal to alert Company Thirteen.  
_My carelessness may have cost me my life;_ bubbled his final thought as his consciousness ebbed away. _But I refuse to let it take anyone else's. Not again._

Alarm bells suddenly started screaming on Tails's laptop as Jameson's distress signal reached him. It immediately isolated the area from where the signal was sent and flashed the warning on Tails's monitor. His eyes flew open in dread as he radioed the rest of the team.

"Relay calling all units! We have a code black! I repeat, CODE BLACK! Respond immediately and neutralize threat! Respond immediately! Over!"  
He threw his radio aside and immediately rushed to grab his SOCOM Pistol and other combat gear.  
_I'd hoped that it wouldn't come to this. _he thought as he yanked on his body armour. _But if I do have to kill today…_ He loaded a clip of ammo into his handgun with a satisfying click. _...after what they did to Cream; I'm gonna make sure it isn't quick._

"So can we take this shit off now Scourgey?"

"Sure babe. Whatever the fuck you want."  
Fiona sighed in relief as she let her hair down from its tight topknot and scraped some of the gunk off she'd used to dye it purple.

"Ugh. This shit smells gross! I can't wait 'til we're done with these fuckers and I can finally get it off me."

"Shut up, will ya?!" barked Scourge. "Vector. Door. Now."  
The huge crocodile casually strolled up to the door and with one swift kick; smashed it off its hinges and shattered its reinforced wooden panelling. The delegates turned in their seats with a gasp as Scourge sauntered into the General Assembly room, reached into his body armour and pulled out an Uzi. Without even glancing to the side, he fired a burst into the crowd. The bullets mostly hit the wall and desks, but one or two hit the delegates.

"That's what'll happen if anyone tries anything stupid!" he yelled over the agonized cries of the people he'd shot. "Don't be a hero; it's hazardous to your health!" He addressed the squad. "Crowd control, now. I'll find the target."

"…and that's the plan. Don't interfere until you get the signal, is that clear? Over."

"Clear as day Tails!" yelled back Sonic as he sprinted for the General Assembly room. "I'm zeroing in on the conflict zone! I'll assess and report when I reach it! Ten-four?"

"Ten-four!"

"Then I'm over and out!" he said before screeching to halt just outside the smashed assembly room doors. Peering around the corner, he spotted the squad corralling the delegates while Scourge searched for the RPM. Ducking inside and rolling behind a desk, Sonic tried to close the distance between him and the squad. When the signal came, he needed to be as close as possible. Catching glimpses of what was going on as he dodged and bobbed silently from desk to desk, he made sure to memorize every detail.

"Relay, I've assessed the situation. The thirteen hostiles are all present and in view. They've taken all 109 delegates captive and are searching for the RPM." He whispered into the communicator. "Chances of multiple casualties upon intervention are high. Are you sure this is going to work?"

"It's the only plan we have right now. Detail where the delegates are gathered."

"On the main platform; around the podium. Anything else?"

"Not for now. Keep still, keep quiet and wait for the signal. Relay; over and out."

Sonic silently slipped the SOCOM pistol from his grey, G.U.N. issue BDU, flicked off the safety and thumbed back the firing hammer.

"Where is he?" Scourge yelled as he menaced yet another delegate for the whereabouts of the RPM. The South African man tried to plead for something, but he was hard to understand with his lips wrapped around a gun barrel. "You've got five fuckin' seconds to answer; or I repaint the back wall with that piece of shit inside your head! I think red would suite this place!"  
He man just shook his head wildly, indicating he didn't know anything. Scourge sighed disappointedly and removed the gun from his mouth. The delegate seemed shocked he was still alive, but despite this, spoke to Scourge.  
"Please let me go! I have children! They cannot live without a father!"  
Scourge seemed to consider this, albeit quite sarcastically, but after a moment of thought; waved the squad aside and indicated for the man to go. He was dumbstruck, but didn't remain for more than a second as he stood and ran for the exit. He was smiling; almost exuberant at his simplest of escapes. He started to yell in joy in Afrikaans as he ran.

"U vader in die huis te kom seuns!Dit sal in orde we-" (Translation: Your father is coming home boys! It'll be alrig-)  
But his steps and words were cut short as a bullet ripped through the back of his head and exited out through his smiling mouth. He dropped dead where he was, a shattered grin forever frozen onto his face. All the while, Scourge was in fits of laughter.

"Oh fuck! Hahahaha! Did you guys see the fuckin' look on his face?! Oh, that shit is priceless!" He let loose a few more chuckles before casually turning back to the delegates and beckoning the next one forward with a simple "Next". The delegates were terrified at the sudden, mercilessly raw display of brutality. The Korean delegate was being pulled forward, when suddenly a portly man with a thick Russian accent stood up.

"This has gone on long enough! You will not harm another person here on my account! You wanted me, here I am!"

"Seems jumbo here has some balls after all!" jested Scourge as he stalked towards the RPM. "Hey fatty, you got a translator here?"  
The RPM refused to answer, remaining stony faced and silent, even as Scourge brought the gun barrel level with this face.

"I'll ask one more time you fat piece of shit. Where's your damn translator?"  
The RPM said nothing. Scourge was about ready to pull the trigger when a small mousy man scurried up next to him.

"Sergei!" Barked the RPM. "I thought I ordered you to stay back!"

"So you're the translator?" asked Scourge, cracking a sadistic grin. "Well listen carefully."  
He quickly turned his attention back to the RPM, gun to his forehead and started reciting what sounded like a well-rehearsed speech.

"You, Rostovich Brava, have been deemed a threat to the state of the United States Of America. As such, you will be executed here and now by us; Company Thirteen of the PMC G.U.N. Upon your death, the USA will fire its nuclear arsenal and destroy Russia and most of Eastern Europe. We don't want you dirty Russians making things difficult for us wherever we go, so we're fixing the problem. Have a nice trip." He thumbed back the firing hammer and with a deafening explosion, fired into the RPMs head.

The gun flew from Scourges grip and the tracer smashed into its body, almost taking his fingers with it.

"'THE FUCK?!" swore Scourge, whipping around to see Shadow poised on the upper tier of the Assembly room, smoking sniper rifle in hands.

"That must be the signal." Yelled Sonic, popping over the cover of the desk and emptying his ammo clip at the Squad; but they were fast and dodged being pillars or held delegates up as meat sheilds.

There was a sudden, deafining crack as the boards of the podium gave way under foot, opening up as Knuckles, Julie-Su and Vector came smashing through. The holes in the floor also opened up an escape route for all the deleagtes. Company thriteen and the Squad exchanged fire while the members of the UN escaped into the basement; but Scourge ripped a ring out a concealed grenade to throw into the hole with them. Sonic recklessly broke cover; dodging tracers and flying chunks of debris to reach him. He punched Scourge hard in the face, making him drop the grenade. Sonic immediately scooped up the explosive and tossed it high in the air in one fluid movement. Shadow spotted the flying frag, levelled his rifle and fired. The small grenade exploded with surprising force, making the ceiling shake, the walls shudder and throwing the rooms remaining occupants to the floor. As the two sides raced to get back to their feet, the walls vents suddenly burst open; leaving Cream, Charmy, Rouge and Blaze to drop through as Amy, Silver, Espio and Tails came barrelling through the smashed doors.

"Looks like the gang's all here!" yelled Scourge excitedly. "Now I get a chance to kill you pussies twice!"

"You look a little blue there Scourge." Retorted Sonic. "Something got you down?"  
Scourge realized he was still disguised as his rival and immediately scraped all the blue dye off his face.

"Ahhh; that's better!" he sighed. "How's the lung treating you blue? I didn't cut too deep did I?"

Sonic shrugged nonchalantly. "It's been worse. How's the arm? It looks a little stiff over there. Or have you just been whacking off more than usual?"

"Alright; that's fuckin' it!" yelled Scourge in frenzy before breaking rank and rushing Company Thirteen. The rest of the squad broke rank and engaged their doubles once again, much like the last time they met; only now, the Suppression Squad weren't having such an easy time of taking them down. The two Tails clashed; steel batons swinging wildly, crashing against each other again and again until the moment presented itself to strike flesh and bone. The bats jarred each other, handle guards moving to lock, leaving the two in a desperate powers struggle.

"Give up runt!" yelled Anti-Tails. "You're smaller and weaker than I am! There's no way you can win! You're just delaying the inevitable!"

"Maybe so…" grunted Tails as his doppelganger gave an extra shove to put himself in the stronger position. "But I've learned some things since last we met." With that, Tails delivered a sharp knee between his opponent's legs, dropping him with a sharp squeak. Tails turned with satisfied smile on his face. "Sometimes, you just gotta' fight dirty."

Fiona and Blaze were going toe to toe, taking blows evenly for at least every one they dealt. A strong right hook from Fiona sent her Blaze staggering back, but not before she clipped Fiona's side with a powerful side kick. The two backed up for breathing space; Fiona taking the opportunity to taunt Blaze.

"You've gotten stronger since we last met; I'll give you that Kitty-Kat!" she jeered before flipping two knives from her sleeves and holding them in a cross armed grip. "But now we fight for real!"  
Blaze only looked at her for a second; but the she laughed. A kind of mocking, condescending laugh that you only the really arrogant can use against the most utterly stupid. Fiona didn't like it one bit.

"What's so damn funny, huh?!"

"If you think we've been fighting then you're more deluded than I was lead to believe. I've been leading you on this whole time. Now, I think it's time I finished this." She raised her paw with fingers poised like she was about to click her fingers. "Oh, and Fiona?"

"What?!"

"In future, if you're fighting a Pyrokinetic; don't dye your hair with something that's flammable _and _explosive."  
Eyes filled with horror, Fiona recognise her mistake too late. With a single click; Fiona lit up like a rag soaked in oil. Blaze didn't even have to do anything. She just let Fiona roll and agonise for a few seconds before turning the flames out and putting her foot on Fiona's head.

"Now," she said. "If you're good and don't cause trouble; I might stop your fur from smouldering."

Sonic and Scourge were still going at it; the last two still fighting; but Scourge was quickly realizing this was a fight he wasn't going to win. Sonic wasn't just stronger and faster now, it was almost like he was precognitive. Everything Scourge tried; Sonic countered it before Scourge could finish it himself.

"You're washed up Scourge!" yelled Sonic, dancing around another clumsy punch. "It's the same shit every time. Same moves, same routine, same attitude." He ducked low, sending a sharp elbow into Scourges ribs before turning to deliver a powerful front kick that sent Scourge skidding across the wooden floor. The green hedgehog didn't stay down though; jumping straight back to his feet and sprinted for Sonic with a feverish bloodlust in his eyes but Sonic stood silent and stony as Scourge charged like a wild animal. With almost mechanical precision, Sonic sidestepped Scourge's mad rush, swept his feet out, grabbed the back of his head and face-planted him straight into the floor with an almighty slam. As his rival sat up and spat a bloody mess of teeth out onto the floor, Sonic stood back and spread his arms wide.

"Give it up Scourge!" he yelled. "You're squad's been destroyed! The RPM is safe! You're the last person still fighting! You've failed! Just give up before I have to hurt you some more!"

Scourge looked around, but Sonic was right. His squad had been taken down. Every single one of them lay beaten, bruised and shackled in anticipation for the arrest and deportation to some hellhole prison. Even if he could take down Sonic, the rest of the team were more than capable of stopping him in his weaken state. Any way the cards were cut; he would lose.  
That's when he started to laugh. At first it sounded like a whimper but it turned into a chesty chuckle, evolving further into a full bodied bellow before descending into a frenzy of maniacal giggles.

"You must think you're real fuckin' smart; don't you blue?" he cackled, standing and smiling his shark grin, now streaked with streams of blood from his smashed teeth and slashed gums. "But if you think I'm going back into prison then you're real stupid!"  
He reached into his right leg pocket before anyone could stop him and pulled out a red, sowing detonator switch. Laughing to himself, he set the detonator live and put his thumb to the button.

"I've got over 120 pounds of C4 covering the oil reserves of this whole damn building! One move and we all go BOOM!" he yelled; loving the expressions of shock and panic that spread across the faces of Company Thirteen and the Squad alike. Evidently, they'd know as much about this as Company Thirteen had.

"Don't do it Scourge!" Warned Sonic. "If you do, I'm telling you; you won't live long enough to regret it!"

"Is that a threat?" asked Scourge, a glint of insanity in his eye. His thumb twitched to the trigger. Everyone flinched. He cackled. He was loving every moment of this. "Don't think about getting smart and calling backup either blue. If you do; the whole of Manhattan gets it as well!"

"Even I know you don't have that many explosives." Challenged Sonic.

"You're right about that, but this building is the main intersection point of half the gas mains of Manhattan!" yelled Scourge. "All I have to do is blow a few mains and suddenly every happy little home in town gets a special surprise when they open the oven for dinner tonight… FLAMING DEATH!" he yelled, before cracking up laughing.  
This was bad. Sonic glanced around at all the others. He would hazard his own life to take Scourge down any day; but never mind the members of his team and all the G.U.N. personnel here, but a whole Island?! He couldn't risk it. Whatever power they'd held only a minute ago was gone. Scourge held all the cards now.

"Okay Scourge. You win…" muttered Sonic. "What do you want?"

"That's more like it!" He yelled. "First, let my team go."  
Sonic nodded to the others. They reluctantly released their doppelgangers from their restraints and allowed them to return to Scourge.

"Second, you let us go. Call your human idiots too. We don't want any more trouble."  
Tails briefly messaged the commander of the G.U.N. squads and waited for a response.

"It's done."

"And lastly, drop your weapons. We don't want any of you getting cocky and taking crack shots at us on our way out."  
There was resounding clatter as Company Thirteen all reluctantly dropped their arms. Guns, knives, batons, knuckledusters, Tasers, shurikens and hammers alike all hit the floor as Company Thirteen were stripped of everything they had to defend themselves. The something occurred to Sonic.

"Wait!" he yelled. "If we do let you go, what's to stop you getting out and blowing this place sky high anyway?"  
The thought suddenly registered with everyone else, but Scourge just shook his head.

"If I could do that, why would I bother my ass coming in here myself?"

"He's right." Piped up Tails. "That's a small wavelength radio detonator. Purely short range. Probably can't work from more than fifty feet. The concrete of the walls here probably cuts that range in half with signal interference."

"That's right short stack." Said Scourge. "Now if you don't mind we'll be leaving."  
As Scourge and the squad turned to leave, Sonic could have sworn her heard him whisper something. But he didn't have time to think about it, as the squad didn't get any more than two steps before spinning back around and scooping up the discarded weapons. Sonic and the others were so in shock, they didn't react as fast as they could have. They stood gawping for half a second before a cry of **"DIE MOTHERFUCKERS!" **snapped them back to reality and they dove behind to the nearest piece of cover.  
The pillar Sonic was hiding behind was having chunk after chunk blown out of it; but that didn't stop him from seeing all the things that were happening to his friends. Knuckles was hit in the shoulder as was Amy in the thigh. Rouges meagre shelter was being blown to ribbons by the weight of the fire, while Cream was trying to shake Tails awake; him being knocked cold by a piece of flying debris.  
They were going to die… unless he did something. That's when Akira's words came into his mind. _If we can open the barriers of our mind to such a force, then we become capable of incredible physical feats and abilities bordering on the supernatural._  
That was it. If Sonic could harness even a fraction of what he'd touched that day in the courtyard; he might be able to turn the tide of this fight. Going with it before he could change his mind; he yelled as loud as he could to Silver over the raging gunfire.

"SILVER!"  
The hedgehog turned from behind his pillar.

"WHAT?!"

"I NEED YOUR HELP! MAKE A ROCK SHELTER FOR ME!"  
The hedgehog look flabbergasted.

"WHAT?! LIKE, RIGHT NOW?!"

"YEAH, RIGHT NOW! I CAN'T EXPLAIN, JUST DO IT!"  
Though he seemed reluctant, Silver swung his hand over his head, brought them in to his side and then shoved both fits forward in a striking motion. Suddenly, a huge slab of rock shot out of the ground and engulfed Sonic; sealing him off from the fire fight. The sounds were considerably dulled, but by no means silent inside it. He sat down, assumed the half lotus position and began to concentrate. While finding the Black Room took longer this time; he found it anyway. But this wasn't enough. He needed to find the exit. He began to run, but it was like trying to move through water and there was not floor to grip. Sonic was floating lost; when he though he sensed something. Almost like a flicker of movement. He turned, but there was nothing there he could see; but there was something he could feel. There was a depression in the dark; an areas where the blackness didn't seem quite so deep. He began to move towards it. Something in the back of his mind was telling him not to go, but he didn't have a choice. His friends' lives were at stake. He couldn't afford to waste time. Drawing closer and closer; Sonic felt like he was approaching something colossal and invisible, but yet he knew there was nothing really there. He came to a sudden halt, his feet feeling like he was actually touching solid ground. A shiny black surface showed his reflection staring back. This was it. _Open it…_ Something seemed to whisper. Sonic reached forward and his hand touched the surface. It was like mercury. He forced his had in, but he could feel it being pushed back no more than a foot through. I was so thick. He threw his weight into it; shoving, driving, staring to force his way through the wall. The liquid sucked at his feet, pushed against his arms and constricted his chest. He felt like he was going to die.  
But suddenly Sonic burst through; arriving in a place so white that the light blinded him. His eyes slowly adjusting, Sonic surveyed the endless landscape of unspoiled white around him. But then he saw something he didn't expect; two figures, one male and one female standing side by side. The male was a hedgehog, blue in colour and strong in stature. He wore an old military uniform on his body and a warm smile on his face. The female was also a hedgehog of the same colour, but of a much smaller size. She wore a traditional wives 50's dress and a loving expression in her eyes. Sonic stopped dead. This couldn't be. They shouldn't be here. They couldn't be here. And yet, every sense in his body told him that they were and this was all too real.

"But… you can't…" he swallowed. "Mom? Dad?"

"It's good to see you son."

"But… Robotnik got you all those years ago. And mom, you're still in Mobius."

"Honey, we are in Mobius. Your father is fine. You don't need to worry anymore."  
And like that, Sonic was back in the old oak cottage he'd grown up in. He was back home with his parents alive and well. It was more than he had dared dream for.

"Mom…" he managed, barely able to contain his tears. "Dad…"  
He fell into their embrace and suddenly everything else seemed to melt away.

_**You're mine now…**_

"We can't open it!" yelled Fiona. The squad had captured the rest of Company Thirteen quickly, but Scourge had ordered them not to kill until he had Sonic out to make him watch. The only problem was, with Sonic sealed inside that rock tomb, there was no way to get him out.

"You're doing it wrong." Said Scourge. "Listen up blue! We still have this detonator! If you don't come out, we'll send this place skyward."  
But Amy pipes up.

"Don't listen to him! He's bluffing! It's not even a real detonator!" He quickly grabbed Amy out of the group of mobians, pulled her to the front and put a gun to her head.

"Alright, new plan!" he yelled. "I'm gonna count to three and if you're not out here by then; you're girlfriend here gets a nice little ventilation hole in her head! One… Two… Thr-"

The rock suddenly exploded apart with incredible impact, throwing everyone in the room off their feet. As the dust cleared, a singled figure standing amongst the rubble encased in a golden aura could be seen.

"Sonic!" Amy yelled.  
The hedgehog stood like a blazing angel, eyes closed, fur golden and quills standing on end. He had transformed to save them. But quickly, the team noticed that something was very wrong. A black **E** was branded on his forehead, straight between the eyes. Even darker black veins of infection spread from the **E** like a plague, running all along his arms, legs, chest and up his quills. Everything had done stony silent except for the slight rushing of air as Sonics golden aura surged back and forth. Amy was the first to approach him.

"Sonic?" she asked, tenuously reaching a hand to him.

"I am not Sonic."  
He turned to her and opened his eyes. She gasps. His eyes are white and blank.

"I am chaos."  
His hands suddenly shoot up, yellow suns of energy forming in his palms.

"CHAOS DESTROYS ALL!"  
He fires the blasts. She ducks, but they do not stop. They plough through the wall as if it is no more than craft paper; burning through everything in their path. He laughs. He likes this destruction. He fires more now; a rapid stream of continuous blasts that explode and detonate; making the building shudder and rock.

"Scourge, what the hell do we do?!"  
Scourge takes one look and balks.

"I didn't get paid to fight no god thing! Squad, retreat!"  
They leave without hesitation. Nobody wants to fight that thing. He's still firing; loving the destruction, the chaos of the moment. It's beyond all ecstasy.  
Tails reawakens. He looks around and sees all the flying lights and explosions.

"What the?"  
He sits up and sees his friend; the centre of all the destruction.

"**What the?"**

"I've grown bored of this!" yells Chaos. "Time to get rid of you pests!"  
He crosses his arms and suddenly stops moving, but things start to change. The ground starts to shake as red light forms around his body. The air crackles with static electricity. He is charging his power. They all feel it, but Shadow is the only one to recognise it.

"HE'S GONNA BLOW!" Shadow yells. "GET OUT! GET OUT NOW!"  
They all hurry for the hole the delegates escaped down, into the basement. They find them huddled together like frightened animals and coax them away, promising freedom. They run hard, unsure how much time they have left, but certain there is not much. They find the exit and break down the door, only to arrive to the sight of a thousand gun barrels.

"Don't move!" yells the police. "Drop your weapons and put you ha-"  
The UN building explodes in a raging inferno of red fire. A scarlet orb seems to precede the explosion, as if making way for the demolition. The blast throws the Company Thirteen high and far from there, but they escape with only minor injury. The same cannot be said for the humans. Over a thousand lives vaporised; turned to smoke in a second. It's impossible to imagine, but it happens anyway.  
A black figure ascends into the air above the carnage and begins to twirl their fingers gently in circles. The sky responds, the clouds moving like a great pot being stirred until they grow fast and begin to descend from the sky. The tornado smashes into the fire, but instead of killing it, merges with it to create a living, warping tower of hellish flame.  
He smiles.  
It has finally begun.


End file.
